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# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 196, page id 778263916:0212
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Semrat PErms.
BC
rhrichare to be Found in ic. Wtich Constitution WVe RnOW nOE; and 10
hravins no particular Idea ot, have no Name chat is the Sign oF it. BUE
vet it is us Colour, Weishe, Fulibilier, and Fixedness, (5c. Wrhich makes
it to be Cold, or sives it a ristt eo that Name, Which is theretore its nO-
minal Fisence. Since nothing can De calsd GoId, bur wrhat Has a Con-
Forimity ol Dualities to that abstract complex Ldea, to whrich that Name
is annexed. But this Distinction ot Fsences, belonoins parciculartr d
Substances, We Mall, wrhen re come to consider their Names, have an Oc.
calion to treat of more fully.
6. F9. That such abstract Ideas, with Names to them, as We have becn
speakins OE, are Fssences, may Farcher appear by wwhat we are toidcon-
cernins Flsences, viz. that ther are all ingenerable, and incorruptible.
Which cannor betrue of the real Constitution ot Things, wrhich begin and
veristr rith them. AIIThinES, that exilc in Nature, belides their Author,
are all liable co Chanse; especially chose Fhinss we are aequainted Witu,
and hare ranked into Bands, under distinct Names Or EnsignS. THuS
Ehat, irtrich Was Crass to DaY, is to Morro tho FleM oF a sihccp; and
rictiin Peir Dars alter, becomes part of 2 Man: In all Wrhict, and the
like Chanses, tis cvident, cheir real Estence, that Constitution erhereon
the Properties ol these several thines depended, is destroy d, and peristes
Withthem. But Fssences beins talcen For Ideas, establithed in the Mind,
wich Names annexed tothem, thez are suppoled to remain Acadily che
Came, Whaterer mutations the particular Substances are liable 10. POr
Whatever becomes oF Alexander and Bucephalus, the Ldeas to WtrichMtan
and Htorsc are annexed, are supposed nevertheless to remain the lame;
and (o the Fssences oFthole Species are preserred undestror d, Wharever
Changes hrappen to any, or ail oF the Indiriduals ot chole Species. By
this means the Fssence ot a Species rests sate and entire, Without the exist.
ence of to much as one Individual ol that kind. FOr vere there nOW nO
Circle existins any irtiere in the Worta, (25, Perhaps, that Figure exilte
not an erhere exactls martied out,) vet che idea annexed eo chac Wame
trould noc ceale to be irhat it is; and to bc as a pastern, to determine
ertrich ofthe particular Pisures we meet with, have, or have not a RigHE
to che Name Circle, and (0 by havins that Fssence, ere ot that Species.
Andthoush chere neither ere, nor had been in Nature such a Bealt a5 an
Onicorn, nor such a Fimtr as a Mermaid; y et suppolins those Names 1O
Stand for complex abstract Ideas, that contained no inconlistenc in them;
the Fllence oE a Mermaid is as intellisible, as that oF a Man; and the
Idea oF an Vnicorn, as certain, Ready, and permanent, as that ol an Horle.
From ihat has been said, it is evident, chat the Doctrine ot the immutabi-
lity ot Fsences, provesthem to be only abstract ideas; and is foundedon
ehe Relation, established betrreen them, and certaim Sounds as Signs OF
ehem; and willalirazs betrue, as lons as ihe lame Idame can hare ehe
lame Cignification.
6. 20. Toconclude, this is that, e hich in More P ould Fay, (viz.) chat
all the sreat Bulinels of Genera and Species, and their FssenCCS, AINOUnES
cono more but this, That Men makcins abstract Ldeas, and sertlins them
in cheir Minds, With Names annexed tothem, do chereby enable chem
selves to consider Things, and discourse ofthem, as ic vere in buncles, For
the calier and readier improvement, and communicarion ot their RnoW-
ledse, Whieh ould advance butAowIy, were their Words and ZhouBHIS
contined only t0 ParcieularS.