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An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, fol. 212

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: 0.92.

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The machine reads it as

  1. Names of Substances.
  2. not their Male; and can sire no Realon, of the difterent Oualities We
  3. find in Them. Tiseridene the internal Constitution, Whercon their pro-
  4. perties dexend is untinoun to us. For togo no Carcher thanthe erossest and
  5. inost obvious we ean imagine amonest them, What is chat Texture et
  6. PaxES : That real Fssence, that makres L cac, and Antimony fusible; Wood,
  7. and Stones not: What makes Leac, and Tron malleable; Antimony, and
  8. Stones HOL: And ret hom insinitely thele come MOrt, OF the fine COnErI-
  9. vances, and unconceirable real FssenCeS OF PlanIS and AnimalS, CVerY. One
  10. Rnos. The Wortemanctrip oF thc all rise, and povertul Ciod, in ehe
  11. Sreat Fabrick of the Oniverle, and erery pare thereot, Carther exceedsthe
  12. Capacity and Comprehension ol the most inquisitire and incelligentMtan;
  13. thanthe best contrivance of the most ingenious Man, doth the Conce.
  14. etions oF the most isnorant ot rational Creatures. Therelore re in vain
  15. pretend to range Thinssinto sorts, and dispole them into certain Clalles,
  16. under Names, by their real Flsences, that aro (o tar trom our Comprehen-
  17. TOnS. Ablind Nan may as soon Port Things by their Colours ond hechat
  18. has lost his Smell, as vell distinguistr a Lily and a Rose by thcir OdOrs,
  19. as by thole internal Constitutions he knos not. Iethac thinks he can
  20. distinguis Sticep and Cioats by their real PSences, that are unkenorn to
  21. him, as bepleased to try his Still in thole Species, called Cassvary,
  22. and Oucrechinchio; and by cheir internal real F. ences, determine the
  23. boundaries of thole Species, rithout knoins the complex ldea of sensi-
  24. ble Oualicies, thar each os chole Names Iands Cor, in the Couneriesirhere
  25. thole Animals are tobe Found.
  26. 5. 10. Tholetheretore rrho have been tausht, that the sereral Species
  27. OF Substances had cheir distinct internal substantiat Forms; and Fhat it
  28. as those Forms, rtrich macle the distinction ol Substances into their true
  29. Species and Genera, vere led yet Farther out of the az, by havino cheir
  30. Minds set upon Fruitless Enquiries alter substancial Forms, Wrholly inintel.
  31. lisible, and rhereos re hare scarce (o muchas any obseure, or contused
  32. Conception in general.
  33. S. FF. That our ranting, and distinguistrins natural Substances into Sje-
  34. cies consists in the Nominal Fssences ehe Mind akces, and not in Fhe re-
  35. al Fssences to be tound in the Thines themselves, is Farther evident from
  36. Oux Ideas oF Spirits. For the Mindgertins, only by reflectins on its omn
  37. Operations, thole limple Ideas Which it attributes to Spirits, it hath, or
  38. cantrare no other Nocion oF Spirit, bur by attributins all those Opera-
  39. tions, it finds in it SelE, to a PorE of Beinos, Without Consideration oF Mat-
  40. ter. And even the most adranced Notion ve have of God, is bur atrri-
  41. butins che same simple Ideas we hare sor trom Reflection, on Wvhat ve
  42. find in our selres; and which e conceire eo have more perfection in
  43. chem, than rould be intheir absence, actributins, I lay, those simple
  44. Ideas co tim in an unlimited desree. Thus havins sor trom restectins
  45. on our selres, the Idea oF Exiltence, Hnomledse, Pover, and Plealure;
  46. cach oferhich e sind it better to have than to mant; and the more e
  47. have ofcach, thebetter, joinins all these together, ith intinitr to cach
  48. ot them, re have the complex Idea ot an eternal, omniscient, omnipo
  49. tene, infiniteli rile, and happy Being. And though re are told, that there
  50. are difterent Species ot Angels; vet e lenom noc ho to trame distinct
  51. specitick Ldeas ot them; not out oF ans Conceit, thac the Existence ot
  52. more Species than one oF Spirits, is impossiblo: But because havins no
  53. more simple Ldeas (nor beins able to frame more) applicable to suchBe
  54. insu but ouls thole Por, talcen trom our selres, and trom the Actions ot
  55. our onn minds in chinhins, and beins delisticed, and morins sereral
  56. PAVES
  57. au

Cite

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, fol. 212. Machine transcription, not an edition: Leibniz Legible (model FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74). https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0228?run=74