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tion by his eternal exiftence, must be allowed to have as clear an idea of infinite fpace as of infinite duration, though neither of them, I think, has any pofitive idea of infinity in either cafe; for whatsoever pofitive ideas a man has in his mind of any quantity, he can repeat it, and add it to the former, as eafy as he can add together the ideas of two days or two paces, which are pofitive ideas of lengths he has in his mind, and fo on, as long as he pleases; whereby if a man had a pofitive idea of infinite, either duration or space, he could add two infinites together, nay, make one infinite infinitely bigger than another; abfurdities too grofs to be confuted.

§ 21. Suppofed pofitive Ideas of Infinity, Caufe of Mis

takes:

BUT yet, after all this, there being men who perfuade themfelves that they have clear pofitive comprehensive ideas of infinity, it is fit they enjoy their privilege; and I fhould be very glad (with fome others that I know who acknowledge they have none fuch) to be better informed by their communication; for I have been hitherto apt to think, that the great and inextricable difficulties which perpetually involve all difcourfes concerning infinity, whether of fpace, duration, or divifibility, have been the certain marks of a defect in our ideas of infinity, and the disproportion the nature thereof has to the comprehenfion of our narrow capacities; for whilst men talk and dispute of infinite space or duration as if they had as complete and pofitive ideas of them as they have of the names they use for them, or as they have of a yard or an hour, or any other determinate quantity, it is no wonder if the incomprehenfible nature of the thing they discourse of or reafon about leads them into perplexities and contradictions, and their minds be overlaid by an object too large and mighty to be furveyed and managed by them.

§ 22. All thefe Ideas from Senfation and Reflection. IF I have dwelt pretty long on the confiderations of duration, fpace, and number, and what arifes from the contemplation of them, infinity, it is poffibly no more

than the matter requires, there being few fimple ideas whofe modes give more exercife to the thoughts of men than thefe do. I pretend not to treat of them in their full latitude; it fuffices to my defign to fhow how the mind receives them, fuch as they are, from fenfation and reflection, and how even the idea we have of infinity, how remote foever it may feem to be from any object of fenfe or operation of our mind, has neverthelefs, as all our other ideas, its original there. Some mathematicians, perhaps, of advanced fpeculations, may have other ways to introduce into their minds ideas of infinity; but this hinders not but that they themselves, as well as all other men, got the first ideas which they had of infinity from fenfation and reflection, in the method we have here fet down.

THO

CHAP. XVIII.

OF OTHER SIMPLE MODES.

§1. Modes of Motion.

HOUGH I have in the foregoing chapters shown how, from fimple ideas taken in by fenfation, the mind comes to extend itself even to infinity, which however it may, of all others, feem moft remote from any fenfible perception, yet at laft hath nothing in it but what is made out of fimple ideas, received into the mind by the fenfes, and afterwards there put together by the faculty the mind has to repeat its own ideas; though, I fay, thefe might be inftances enough of fimple modes of the fimple ideas of fenfation, and fuffice to flow how the mind comes by them, yet I shall, for method's fake, though briefly, give an account of fome few more, and then proceed to more complex ideas.

§ 2.

To fide, roll, tumble, walk, creep, run, dance, leap, skip, and abundance of others that might be named, are words which are no fooner heard, but every one who

understands English, has presently in his mind diftin&t ideas, which are all but the different modifications of motion. Modes of motion answer thofe of extenfion : Swift and flow are two different ideas of motion, the measures whereof are made of the diftances of time and space put together; fo they are complex ideas comprehending time and space with motion.

§3. Modes of Sounds.

THE like variety have we in founds. Every articulate word is a different modification of found; by which we fee, that from the fenfe of hearing by fuch modifications, the mind may be furnished with distinct ideas to almost an infinite number. Sounds alío, befides the distinct cries of birds and beasts, are modified by diverfity of notes of different length put together, which make that complex idea called a tune, which a musician may have in his mind when he hears or makes no found at all, by reflecting on the ideas of thofe founds fo put together filently in his own fancy.

$4. Modes of Colours.

THOSE of colours are alfo very various ; fome we take notice of as the different degrees, or, as they are termed, fhades of the fame colour. But fince we very feldom make affemblages of colours either for use or delight, but figure is taken in alfo, and has its part in it, as in painting, weaving, needle-work, &c. thofe who are taken notice of, do moft commonly belong to mixed modes, as being made up of ideas of divers kinds, viz. figure and colour; fuch as beauty, rainbow, &c.

$5. Modes of Tafte.

ALL compounded taftes and finells are alfo modes made up of the fimple ideas of thofe fenfes. But they being fuch as generally we have no names for, are lefs taken notice of, and cannot be fet down in writing, and therefore must be left without enumeration to the thoughts and experience of my reader.

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§ 6.

In general it may be obferved, that thofe fimple modes which are confidered but as different degrees of the fame fimple idea, though they are in themselves many of them very diftinct ideas, yet have ordinarily no diftinct names, nor are much taken notice of as diftinct ideas, where the difference is but very small between them. Whether men have neglected thefe modes, and given no names to them, as wanting measures nicely to diftinguish them, or because when they were so distinguished, that knowledge would not be of general or neceffary ufe, I leave it to the thoughts of others; it is fufficient to my purpose to fhow, that all our fimple ideas come to our minds only by sensation and reflection; and that when the mind has them, it can variously repeat and compound them, and so make new complex ideas. But though white, red, or fweet, &c. have not been modified or made into complex ideas, by feveral combinations, fo as to be named, and thereby ranked into species; yet fome others of the simple ideas, viz. thofe of unity, duration, motion, &c. above inftanced in, as alfo power and thinking, have been thus modified to a great variety of complex ideas, with names belonging to them.

$7. Why fome Modes have, and others have not Names. THE reafon whereof, I fuppofe, has been this: That the great concernment of men being with men one amongst another, the knowledge of men and their actions, and the fignifying of them to one another, was most neceffary; and therefore they made ideas of actions very nicely modified, and gave thofe complex ideas names, that they might the more easily record, and difcourfe of thofe things they were daily converfant in, without long ambages and circumlocutions; and that the things they were continually to give and receive information about, might be the eafier and quicker understood. That this is fo, and that men in framing different complex ideas, and giving them names, have been much governed by the end of fpeech in general, (which is a very fhort and expedite way of conveying their thoughts

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one to another) is evident in the names, which in feveral arts have been found out, and applied to feveral complex ideas of modified actions belonging to their feveral trades, for difpatch fake, in their direction or difcourfes about them; which ideas are not generally framed in the minds of men not converfant about thefe operations. And thence the words that ftand for them, by the greatest part of men of the fame language, are not understood; v. g. colfbire, drilling, filtration, cohobation, are words ftanding for certain complex ideas, which being feldom in the minds of any but thofe few whofe particular employments do at every turn suggest them to their thoughts, thofe names of them are not generally understood but by fmiths and chemifts, who having framed the complex ideas which thefe words ftand for, and having given names to them, or received them from others upon hearing of these names in communication, readily conceive thofe ideas in their minds; as by cohobation all the fimple ideas of diftilling, and the pouring the liquor diftilled from any thing, back upon the remaining matter, and diftilling it again. Thus we see that there are great varieties of fimple ideas, as of taftes and fmells, which have no names; and of modes many more, which either not having been generally enough obferved, or elfe not being of any great ufe to be taken notice of in the affairs and converfe of men, they have not had names given to them, and fo pafs not for fpecies. This we shall have occafion hereafter to confider more at large, when we come to speak of words.

CHAP. XIX.

OF THE MODES OF THINKING.

1. Senfation, Remembrance, Contemplation, &c.
HEN the mind turns its view inwards upon it-

WH
W felf, and contemplates its own actions, think-

ing is the first that occurs.

In it the mind obferves a

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