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# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 195, page id 778263916:0211
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Generat LC
Species. Fistrue, there is ordinarily suppolec a real Constitution OF th
Torts et Things; and Eis past doube, there mur de lome real Constitu.
tion, on rhich any Collection ot simple Ideas co existins, must depend
Buc il beino evident, that Thinos are ranked under Narmes into lorts or
Species, only as ther acree ro certain abstract Ldeas, to Which ve have
annexec those NameS, the Fsence oF cach Oenus, Or SOrt, comes to bC nO-
chins buc chat abstract Idea, Which the Genexal, Ox Sortal (iF F may havo
leave sorocall. it from Sorr, as I do General From Genus,) Name Cands FOr.
And ehis e PBaII And to bethat, which the Word Fssence imports, in its
most familiar nsc. These ero Torts oP Fsence, Isuppose, mar noc unsitly
De tered, the one thC Real, che orher the Nominal Fserce.
5. 16. Berueen the Nominal Fssence, and the Name, there is lo near a
Connexion that theName ot an Port ot Fhinss cannor be attribured eo
any particular Being, but what has this FPenco, Whereby ic anIIVerS FMaE
abstract Idea WhrereoF chat Name is the Sign.
6. 27. Concerning the real Fssences ot corporeal Substances, (to men-
Tion those onIV,) There are, it I mistalee noc, two Opinions. The one is
oF thole, Who ulins thC Word FssencO, For ther BnO noc itrat,
suppose a certainnumber of those Flsences, accordins towhich, aI natural
chinssare made, and wherein they do exactly erery one ol them partalic.
and (o become oF this or that Species. The ocher, and more rational
Opinion, is oF thole, utro look on all natural Thines to have a real, but
untenown Consticution ot their insensible Parts, Trom which Row chole
sensible Oualities, Which serve us to distinguistr them one trom another
accordins as ve have Occasion torarke them into lorrs, under common
Denominations. The Former ot these Opinions, Wtich suppoles these
Fssences, as a certain number oF Forms or Molds, Wherein aIl natural
Things, that exist, are cast, and do equallr partatie, has, limagine, very
mucli perplexed thie Rnomledse of natural Things. Fhe Frequent Pro-
ductions ofMonsters, in all the Species os Animals, and or Chanselinos.
and other Rranse Issues oF humane Bireh, carry wich them Difficulties,
not postible to conlst ith this sypothesis: Since it is impoltible, that Livo
Things, parralins exacty of the lame real Fssence, Mould have different
Properries, as that oFigures partalins in the samereal F. Ssence oF a Cirele.
Thould have difterent Proverties. Bur ere thereno ocherkicason againstit, yet
the supposition of Fsences, that cannot be tenouniand y et thre makino them 10
be that, Which distinguistres the Species of Thinss, is (o wholly useless, and
unserviceable to any part ot cur Rnorledoe, thar thar alone ivere suf
cient, tomate us lay it by; and content our selves with luch FPences OF
FHC SOrES Or SpecIeS OF THinOS, as come wichin the reacH OF Our RNOW-
ledse: Wtrich, Wrhren seriousts considered, rill be Found, as Phave laid.
to Be nothins elle, but thole abstract complex Ideas, to wtrich wve have
annexed distinet general Names.
5. 18. Fsences thus distinguistred into Nominal and Real, We may ob.
Terre, chat in the Species oF simple Idcas and Modes, they are alvays the
same: But in Substances, alvays quite different. Fhus a Figure includine
a Space Betreen three Lines, is the real, as well as nominal Essence ot a
Trianole; it beino noc only the abstract Idea to vrtrich the general Name
is annexed, but theverr Fssentia. Or Beins, ot the chincit Celt char Founda-
eion trom Which alLits Properties Ror, and to which ther are all inseparably
annexed. BuF ir is tar ocherwise concernino that parcel oF Matter, Which
malies che Rins on my Finger, rherein thele tro Kssences are apparentty
different. For it is the real Constiturion oE its insensible Parts, On Which
depend all those Properries of Colour, Weisht, Fulibilits, Fixedness, (5c.
eotrietu