An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, fol. 196
Machine transcription. Not an edition. Errors are expected: about 8% character error rate on Latin and French lines, higher on German. Mean line confidence on this page: 0.90.
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The machine reads it as
- 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.
Cite
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, fol. 196. Machine transcription, not an edition: Leibniz Legible (model FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74). https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0212?run=74