Search the Nachlass

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.

Original at the GWLB · Page image · Annotations (IIIF) · Download text

The machine reads it as

  1. Semrat PErms.
  2. BC
  3. rhrichare to be Found in ic. Wtich Constitution WVe RnOW nOE; and 10
  4. hravins no particular Idea ot, have no Name chat is the Sign oF it. BUE
  5. vet it is us Colour, Weishe, Fulibilier, and Fixedness, (5c. Wrhich makes
  6. it to be Cold, or sives it a ristt eo that Name, Which is theretore its nO-
  7. minal Fisence. Since nothing can De calsd GoId, bur wrhat Has a Con-
  8. Forimity ol Dualities to that abstract complex Ldea, to whrich that Name
  9. is annexed. But this Distinction ot Fsences, belonoins parciculartr d
  10. Substances, We Mall, wrhen re come to consider their Names, have an Oc.
  11. calion to treat of more fully.
  12. 6. F9. That such abstract Ideas, with Names to them, as We have becn
  13. speakins OE, are Fssences, may Farcher appear by wwhat we are toidcon-
  14. cernins Flsences, viz. that ther are all ingenerable, and incorruptible.
  15. Which cannor betrue of the real Constitution ot Things, wrhich begin and
  16. veristr rith them. AIIThinES, that exilc in Nature, belides their Author,
  17. are all liable co Chanse; especially chose Fhinss we are aequainted Witu,
  18. and hare ranked into Bands, under distinct Names Or EnsignS. THuS
  19. Ehat, irtrich Was Crass to DaY, is to Morro tho FleM oF a sihccp; and
  20. rictiin Peir Dars alter, becomes part of 2 Man: In all Wrhict, and the
  21. like Chanses, tis cvident, cheir real Estence, that Constitution erhereon
  22. the Properties ol these several thines depended, is destroy d, and peristes
  23. Withthem. But Fssences beins talcen For Ideas, establithed in the Mind,
  24. wich Names annexed tothem, thez are suppoled to remain Acadily che
  25. Came, Whaterer mutations the particular Substances are liable 10. POr
  26. Whatever becomes oF Alexander and Bucephalus, the Ldeas to WtrichMtan
  27. and Htorsc are annexed, are supposed nevertheless to remain the lame;
  28. and (o the Fssences oFthole Species are preserred undestror d, Wharever
  29. Changes hrappen to any, or ail oF the Indiriduals ot chole Species. By
  30. this means the Fssence ot a Species rests sate and entire, Without the exist.
  31. ence of to much as one Individual ol that kind. FOr vere there nOW nO
  32. Circle existins any irtiere in the Worta, (25, Perhaps, that Figure exilte
  33. not an erhere exactls martied out,) vet che idea annexed eo chac Wame
  34. trould noc ceale to be irhat it is; and to bc as a pastern, to determine
  35. ertrich ofthe particular Pisures we meet with, have, or have not a RigHE
  36. to che Name Circle, and (0 by havins that Fssence, ere ot that Species.
  37. Andthoush chere neither ere, nor had been in Nature such a Bealt a5 an
  38. Onicorn, nor such a Fimtr as a Mermaid; y et suppolins those Names 1O
  39. Stand for complex abstract Ideas, that contained no inconlistenc in them;
  40. the Fllence oE a Mermaid is as intellisible, as that oF a Man; and the
  41. Idea oF an Vnicorn, as certain, Ready, and permanent, as that ol an Horle.
  42. From ihat has been said, it is evident, chat the Doctrine ot the immutabi-
  43. lity ot Fsences, provesthem to be only abstract ideas; and is foundedon
  44. ehe Relation, established betrreen them, and certaim Sounds as Signs OF
  45. ehem; and willalirazs betrue, as lons as ihe lame Idame can hare ehe
  46. lame Cignification.
  47. 6. 20. Toconclude, this is that, e hich in More P ould Fay, (viz.) chat
  48. all the sreat Bulinels of Genera and Species, and their FssenCCS, AINOUnES
  49. cono more but this, That Men makcins abstract Ldeas, and sertlins them
  50. in cheir Minds, With Names annexed tothem, do chereby enable chem
  51. selves to consider Things, and discourse ofthem, as ic vere in buncles, For
  52. the calier and readier improvement, and communicarion ot their RnoW-
  53. ledse, Whieh ould advance butAowIy, were their Words and ZhouBHIS
  54. 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