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# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 267, page id 778263916:0283
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Derrees of nomledee.
Whereos cach is t0o subeile to be perceired, it is imponible tor vs to have
anr exact Meatures ot che difterent dedrées ot thele simple Ideas. FOr
supposins ehe Sensation or Ldea We name Whicenels, be produced in us
br a certain number of Globules, which harine a verricier about cheir
oin Centres, Prikre upon the Rerina oFche Fye, Wich a certain deoreo
OFRotation, 25 Well as prosressire Sritenels; it willhenee catils FolIOW.
Fhat che more the superticial parts of aHv Body are (0 ordered, as to re-
Aect the Greater number oF Globules OF LigHE, and tO sive theM FMAL PrO-
per Rotation, irtich is sic eo produce ehis Senlarion oF White in us, the
more Whire Will that Bodr appear, char, trom an equal space sends to the
Retina the creater number ot such Corpuscles, rith that peculiar Pore
OFMorion. Id0 nor lay, thac the nature ot Listue contis in very (maII
round Globules, nor ot Whicenels, in such a Texture ot parts as cives e
cerrain Rotation to these Globules, When ie resects them; For L am nOL
no treatins plytically ol Lishut, or Colours: Buc chis, Ithinle, I may
TaY, FHaE P CaHHOT (are P would be glad any one vould makre incelligible
that he did) conceire hoir Bodies without us, can anr rays aftect our
Senses, but by the immediare contact of the sensible Bodies themselres.
as in Fasting and Feclins, or the impulse of lome insensible Particles eo.
mino trom them, a5 in Secins, FTcarins, and Smelline; by the disterene
impulse of irhich Parts, caused by their difterent Size, Figure, and MO-
tion, the varieer ot Senlations is procuced in us.
5. T2. Whecher then ther be Globules, or no; or Whether they have a
Verriciey abour their oion C’entres, chat produce the Ldea oF Whirenels in
us this is certain, chat the more Parricles oF Lipht are reflected From a
Bodr, ticred eo sive ehem that peculiar Morion, Wrhich produces the Sen
Pation of Whiceness in us; and possibly 100, the quicker the peculiar No-
tion is, the whirer does the Bodr appear, From erhich the greater num-
ber are reslected, as is evident in the lame piece oF Paper pur in the sun-
beams, inthe Strade, and in a darte Fole; in cach of irhich, it will pro-
duee in us the Fdea oF Whiteness in tar different decrees:
S. F3. NoL Lnomins theretore What number oE Particles, nor Wrhat
Morion of them is fit to produce any precile degree of Whicenels, We can-
not demonstrate the certain Equalier of any tvo decrees of Whitenels.
because ve have no certain Standard co meature chem BY, nOx MICanS +O
diltinoui everr ehc least real difference, the orly help me have beins
trom our Senses, which in chis point Cail us. But Where the ditterence is
s0 great, as to produce in theMind clearly distinet Ldeas, ihose differen
ces ean be pertectir rerained, there these Ideas ot Colours, as ve sec in
different kinds, as Blue and Red, are as capable ot Demonstrarion, as
Edeas of Number and Fxtenlion. What I have here laid of WVhiceness and
Colours, I Think, holds true in ail secundaries Oualities and their Modes.
5. F4. These ErO, (~i2.) Intuicion and Demonstration, are the degrees
OF our Rnomledoe; Whaterer comes Mort ot onc of these, ith Whatassu
rance foerer embraced, is but Faich, or Opinion, but nor Rnowledoe, at
least in all general Truths. There is, indecd, another Perception of thé
Mind, employ dabour the particular existence of finite Beines without
us; Wrhich ooins berond bare probabilier, and vet noc reachins perfectr
to cither of the tore goine degrees ol Certainer, passes under the namie ot
Hnomledse. There can be nochins more cortain, than that the Idea e re
ceire trom an external Object is in our Minds; this is intuitive Knom ledoe.
Butwhetherthere be ans thins more than barely that Idea in our Minds,
Whether we can thence certainly inter the existence of any thing without
us, Wrhich corresponds to chat Idea, is that Whereot lome Men thinl
MM 2
there