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Show :q6 ·.. Imperjeflion of Words. Book III. found united; as another, who has not fo well examined, ha~ to leave them out; or a third, who has made. other Trtals, has to put m others. For the Union in Nature of thefe Qgalmes, bemg the true Ground of their Union in one complex Idea, Who can fay one of them has more Reafon to bep~t in or left out than another I From whence it will always unavoidablyfoilow that the complex IdrasofSubllances, in Men uling.tl)e fame Name for' them, will be very various ; and fo the lignifica1ions of thofe names, very uncertain. §. 14. Belides, there is fcarce any particular thing exifiing, '.\'hid1 in fome of its fimple Ideas, does n?t comm.umcate W1th a greater,aild 10 others with a lefs number of parucular Be10gs: Who /hall determme 10 this Cafe which are thofe that are to make up the prccife ColleCtion, which is to' be lignified by the fpecifick Name; _or can with any jull Authority prefcribe which obvious or common Qgahues are to be left out ; Or which more fecret, or more particular, are to be put into the lignification of the name of any Subllance! All wbicb together, feldom or never fail to produce that, various and doubtful Signification in t!Jr names of Subf/anm, which caufes fuch Uncertainty, Difputes, or Millakcs, when we come to a Philofophical Ufe of them. § r 5. 'Tis true, as to ci71il and common Conver(ation, ·the general namu '.[ SubPanm, regulated in their ordinary Signification by lome obvious Q.galities, (as by the Shape and Figure in Things of known feminal PrCl" pagation, and in other Subflances, for the moll part by Colour, join'd with fome other fenlible QJ)alities,) do wd/ enough, to delign the Things they would beunderllood to fpeak of. And foMen ufually conceive well enough the Subflances meant by the Word Gold, or Apple, todjflinguilh the one from the other. But in Philofophica/ Enquiries ami Dd;aut, where general Truths •re tobeeflablilhed, and Confequenccs drawn from Politions laid down, there the precife fignification of tile names of Sub· fiances will be found, not only not to be well ej}abti(hed, but alfo very hard to be fo. For Example, he that /hall make Malleability, or a certain degree of Fixednefs, a part of his complex Idea of Gold, may make Pro· pofitions concerning Gold, and draw Confequences from them, that will truly and clearly follow from Gold, taken in fuch a lignification: But yet fuch as another Man can never be forced to admit, nor be convinced of their Truth, who makes not Malleablenefs, or the fame degree of Fix· ednefs, part of that complex Idea, that the name Gold, in his ufe of it, !lands for. §. r6. This is a natural, and almofl unavoidable Imperfection in almofl all the names of Subllances, in all Languages whatfoever, which Men will ealily find, when once palling from confufed or loofe Notions, they come to more flrict and clofeEnquiries. For then they will be convinced, how doubtful and obfcure rhofe Words are in their Signification, which in ordinary ufe appeared ·very clear and determined. I was once in a Meeting of very learned and ingenious Phylicians, where by chance there :lrofe a Qgeftion, whether any Liquor palfed through the Filaments of the Nerves; the Debate havin~ been managed a good while, by variety of Ar· guments on i>?th fides, I (who had been ufed to fufpect, that the grea· tell: part of D1fputes were more about the lignification of Words, than a real difference in· the Conception of Things) delired, That before they w~ntany farther on m this Difpute, they would firfl examine, and ella· bhlh amon&ll them, what the Word Liquor lignified. They at firfr were a httle f~rpnzed at the Propofal ; and had they been Perfons lels ingemous, d1ey m1ght, perhaps, have taken 1t for a very frivolous, or extrav~gant • oM : Chap. IX. ImperfeC!ion of Words. one: Sirrce there was no one there, that thought not himfelf to underlbmd very (1crfectly, \Vhat the Word Liquor llood for ; which, I think coo, nbne of the moll perplexed names of Subflances. However, they were plea fed td comply with my Motion, and upon Examination found that the figrrtfidation of that Word, was not fo fettled and ~ertain, as they had all imagined; but that eaah of them made it a fign of a different com· plex Idea. This made them perceive, that the Maih· of their Difpute was about the fignification of that Term; and that they differed very little in theirOpinions,conccrning fume fluidahd fubtile Mattet,pafling through the Omduits of the Nerves ; though it wa.\ n6r fo ealie to agree, whether it was to be called Liquor, ot no; a thing which when each conlidered, kt thought it not worth the cohtendipg about. ~. 17. How much this is the Cafe of die greatefl part of Difputes, that Men are engaged fo hotly in, I /hall, perlttps, have an occalion in anothtr place to take notice. Let us only here confider a little more exaaJy the fore-mcntiMcd in fiance of the Vir oid Gold, arid we lhall fee how hard it is precifely to determine its Signification. AlmoO: all agree, that it lhould lignifie a Body of a certain yeltow lhiding Colour; which being the Idea to which Children have annexed tnat name, the lhining yellow par'1i of a Peacock's Tail, is properly to then\ Gold. Others finding fulibility join ·d with that yellow Colour in Gold, think the other which eontain'd nothing but the idea of Body with that Colour not tru!J to reprefent Gold, but to be an imperfect Idea ·of that fort of Subfrance: And therefore the Word Gold, as referr'd to that fort of Subllances, does 6f ~ight lignifie a Body of that yellow Colour, \vnich by the Fire will be' reduted to Fulion, and not eo Alhes. Another by· the fame Reafon adds, the Wei~ht, which being a Qgnlity,as firaitly join'?:wjtl"i_ th~t Colour, as ltSFufibd1ty, he tlimks has the lame Reafon to·be JOm\:1· m tts Idea, and ro lie lignified by its name: And therefore the other made up of Body, of fuch a Colour and Fulibility, to be imperfeCt; and fq on of all the rell: Wherein no one can /hew a Reafon, wliy forhe of the iqfcparable Qgnlities, lhat ~re.olways united in Nature, lhould be put into. the nominal Elfence, and other& left out : Or why the Word Gold, ligmfymg that fort of Body the Ring on his Finger is m•de of, thould determine that fort, rather by its Colour, Weight, and Fufibility;_ than by its Colour, Weight, and So· lubility in •?· r.gia: Since the dillolving 1t by that L1quor, IS as 1nf~pa· rable from it, as the fufion by Fire ; and they are both of the~ nothmg, but the relation that Subflance has to two other Bod1es, wh1ch have a Power to operate differently upon it. For by what Right is it, that Fufi. bility comes to be a part of the Elfence, fignified by the Word Gold, and Solubility but a property of it! Or why is its Colour part of. the Elfence, and its Malleablenefs but a property ! That wh1ch I mean, !s thJS, That thefe. being all but Properties, depending on. 1ts real Conflttuuon ; ~nd Hothmg but Powers, either aaive or paOJVe, .m re.ference to other Bodles, 110 one has Authority to determine the figmficauon of the Word ~old, (asreferr'd to fuch a Bodyexifling in Nature,) more to one Colled10n of /Jras to be found in that Body, than to another: Whereby the figmfica· tion of that name mufl unavoidably be very uncertain! Since, as has J:een ·laid, le•eral People obferve Properties in the fame Subflance; and,! thmk, I may fay no Body all. And therefore we have ~tit. very 1m perfect dcfcriptions of Things and Words have very uncertafn S•gmficat1ons. §. t8. By what has' been before faid, if is eafie to obferve, that the Nnm" of )imple Ideas are, of all others the leaf/ liable to Miflall~s. Firj} Becaufe the Ideas they frand for ate much ealier got, and nlore· ' ·· ' ' clearly |