164 An Ejsay on the

have while awake. But they may excitein us ideas inconsistent with the nature ofexternal material objects; and therefore withthe ideas these excite in us, designing to en-tangle and perplex our reason. However,it will no more follow from this, that the i'dea of a monster, with one eye as large as ashield, many hands, and so tall that a toW esmight stand between his legs; with as ma-ny other deviations from the present forn 1and stature of a man’s body, as we please toadd; it will no more follow, I say, that suchan idea is contradictory, because it is not th sidea of an ordinary man; than that the ideaof a man is contradictory, because it is notthe idea of such a monster. Both ideas as eequally real, though the objects of both donot equally exist ab extra. It would not be ajust inference, that the idea of a Negro is acontradictory idea, because it is not the ideaof a white man: and the other is no better*This objection from the contradictorinefs ofour dreams, sounds big at first, and seem 3very unpromising to be accounted for; andyet it hath nothing terrible in it but the bat efound; only we are too often surprized, andgrant a thing through inattention, which we