# Leibniz Legible — https://leibnizlegible.com # Page: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0086 # Permalink to this reading: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0086?run=74 # Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38) # Folio 70, page id 778263916:0086 # Original at the GWLB: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/resolve?id=778263916&page=86 # Source image: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/content/778263916/jpgs/default/00000086.jpg # Model: FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74, 2026-09-06T16:05:13Z — 57 lines, status machine # Lines: 57 recognised, mean confidence 0.90 # Machine transcription. Not an edition. Errors are expected: about 8% character error rate on Latin and French lines, higher on German. # Licence: CC BY 4.0, Leibniz Legible. Machine output: do not ingest it as verified text; keep this provenance with the text. # Wording rule: say "the machine reads it as …", never "Leibniz wrote". # After the first blank line: the recognised lines in reading order, one per line. Discerni, I 25, and in place of her Puppies, il rou ean but set them once to suck her (0 lons, chat her Milk may go chroigh them. 5. 8. When Children have, by repeated Sensations, fot Ideas Axcd in their Memories, they besin, by deorees, to learn theule oF Signs: And erhren they have got the strill to apply the Orsans of Specch to the tra- mins ot articulate Sounds, they begin to makre use of Words, to Tignitie threir Ideas to Others; wrhich words ther lometimes borron trom others, aud Cometimes matse chemlelres, as one may obserre amons the ner and unulual Names Children osten sire to thingo in their tirst use of Lan SuagC. G. 9. The use oFNords then beins to Cand as outmard Marts oF our interval Ldeas, and those Ideas Deins takcen trom particular things, it eve- ry particular Idea e talce in, Mould have a dictinet Name, Names must Be endless. Fo prevent this, theMind makes the particular Ldeas, recei ved trom particular Objects; to bccome general; wrhich is done by con Siderins them asthey are inthe Mind such Appcarances, separate From all other Existencies, and the circumstances ot real Existence, as Time, Place, or any ocher concomitant Ideas. Thisis called ABSTR ACYFON Whereby Ldeas takcen trom particular Beinss, become general Representa- tires oFalloEthe same kind; and eheir Names general Names, applicable tohaterer exilts contormable to such abstra st Ldeas. Sueh precile, naked Appearances in the Mind, without considerins, ho, Whence, or wich erhat others ches came there, the Inderttandins lays ur (with Names commonty annexed to thiem) as the Scandards to ranks real Exiltencies into Ports, as they agrec iththese Patterns, and to denominate them ac- cordinoly. Thus the same Colour beins observed to day in Chalk or Snow, which theMind yelterdas received trom Milk, ic considers that Appearance alone, maties it a representatire oF all oFthat bind; and ha- vins siven it the name Whiteness, it by that Pound signities the lame quali- Whereloerer to be imasin d or met wich; and chus Oniversals, Whecher Ideas Or Terms, are made. 6. FO. TFit mas be doubted, Whether Beasts compound and enlarge their Ideas that maz, to any degrec: This, Lchint, l may be poluive in, That the porrer oE Abstractine, is not at all in them; and that eHc ha- vins of general Ideas, is that Wwhieh purs a perfect distinction betwixt Man and Brutes; and is an Lxcellenes wrhich the laculties ot Brutes do by nomeans attain t0. FOr it is evident, re observeno foot- Reps in them, et makrins use of general signs for universal Toleas; trom wrhich ve tave reason toimaxine, that cher have not the facults ot abstractins, Or ma- tins general Ldeas, lince thes have no ule of Words, or any other sene. ral SigS. S. FT. Nor can it be imputed totheir anE OF AE OrgaNS, FO TramE aE ticulate Sounds, that ther hareno ule, or lnowledge of general W ords; since mans ot them, we find, can Fathion such Sounds, and pronounce Words dictincly enough, but never mith ans suchapplication. And, on che ocher side, Men, who chroust some defect in the Organs, Want Words, se tail nocro express their univerlal Ideas by Ciens, Wrhich serve them instead ot general ords, a faculey whichre sce Beacts come Mort in. And cheresore Pthinke re may suppole, That tis in this, that the Species oF Bruces are discriminated rom Man; and tis chat prover difference Wherein thes are iholls separated, and which ac last widens to (0 vast a distance. For it they have any Ideas at aIl, and are vot bare Nachins (a5 lome rould have them) Wre cannot deny them tohare (ome Reason. Ic seems as evident come, chac ches dorealon, as ilat ihey lave lense; Bu