# Leibniz Legible — https://leibnizlegible.com # Page: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0198 # Permalink to this reading: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0198?run=74 # Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38) # Folio 182, page id 778263916:0198 # Original at the GWLB: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/resolve?id=778263916&page=198 # Source image: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/content/778263916/jpgs/default/00000198.jpg # Model: FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74, 2026-09-06T16:05:13Z — 56 lines, status machine # Lines: 56 recognised, mean confidence 0.92 # 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. True an l’abse luclos Thines ithout, cannor be thoughe false, beins exact Representarions or Comethins: nor yet il thes have ans thing inthem, ditterins trom itie realitr of Thinss, can they proxeriy be laid to be false Reprelentations. Or Fdeas oF Thinss, ther do not represent. But the miltatie and fal. hood is, 6. 2F. First, Whenthe Mind havins anx Idea, it judees and concludes et the same, that is in other Mens Minds, sienified by the same name or that it is contormable co the ordinary receired signification, or de- tinition of that Word, irtien indecd it is not: Which is che most usu- al mistakee in mixed Modes, though orher Ideas allo are liable to it. 5. 22. Seconalr, Wrhen it havino a complex idea made up ot luch a Col. lection of Cimple ones, as Nature never puts cocether, it judces it io arée 20 a Species of Crearures really existine; as wrhren it joins the weistit ot Tin, tothe colour, Fulibilies, and sxednels oF Crold. 8. 23. Thiraly, When in its complex Idea, it hras united a certain num- ber ot limple Ideas, that do really exist rogether in lome lorts of Crea tures, but has also lest out others, as much inseparable, it judces this to be a perfect compleat Idea, of a sort of things which really it is not: v. e having joined the sdeas ot substance, rellor, malleable, most heavr, and fusible, it tatesthat complex Ldea to be thecompleat idea of Ciold, erten Vet its Deculiar Axednels and solubilier in aqua Recia are as inseparable trom chole ocher Ideas, or Oualities oFthat Body, as they are one from another. 8. 24. Fourrhlr, Themistake is yex Greater, when I judce, that this com- plex Ideas contains in it the real Fssence of any Body existing; When at least it contains but lome ter of chole Proverties, Which Nor trom its real Fssence and Constiturion. I lay, onty lome ser ofthole Proverties. For those Properries consistine mostly in the active and passive Porers, ie has, in reference to other Thinos, all that are vulgarts lenorn ot anyone Body; and ofihich the complex idea ot that lind ot Things is usualy made, are but a very ferr, in comparison of erhat a Man, that has leveral rays tried and examined it, Rnors of that one sort of Things; and aII that the most expere Man knons, are but ferr, in comparison ot vhat arc reallr in that Body, and depend on its internal or essential Constitution. Theessence ot a Triansle, lies in a verr little compals, consilts in a very Ter Ideas; three Lines mecting at three Angles, makre ux that Fsence: Bur ehe Properties that _o trom this Fsence, are more than can bc ealily bnorri, or enumerated. 50 limasino it is in Subltances their real Fissences lic, in a lictle compass; thoush the Properties Aoins trom chat internal Constitution, are endless 8. 25. Foconclude, a Man havins no notion ol any Thins without him, but by the Pdea he has of it in his Mind; Wrhich Idea, he has a porer to call by What Name he pleases, he may, indeed, malce an Idea neither ansverins the reality of Thinss, nor agrecins ro che Ideas com inonty Cignitiedby ocher Peoples Words; but cannor makre a vrone, or False idea oF a Thing, irhich isno otherrrise knovn to him, but by the Ideahe has ofit. V. e. WhenI trame an Ldea otthe Legs, Arms, and Body oF a Man, and join t0 this a FTorses FIcad and Neck, I do nor inatie a False Lalea oF any thins; because it reprelents nochine rithout me. But Wrhen Icall it a Man, or Partar, and imagine it cithier to represent some real Beins rithour me, or tobe the lame Idea, that others callby the Pairre name; in cither ot these cases, I may err. And uxon this account it IS, Flat ic comes to be termed a false Idea; though, indeed, the Falhhood lic not in che Idea bur in chat racit mencal Propolition, Wherein a con formicy