METAPHYSICS.

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whatever exists conformable to such abstract ideas. Thus the co-lour received from chalk, snow, and milk, is made a representa-tive of all of that kind ; and has a name given it (whiteness,)which signifies tiie same quality, wherever to be found or imagined.,4nd thus universals, both ideas and terms, are made.

Of Complex Ideas.

In the reception of simple ideas the mind is only passive,having no power to frame any one to itself, nor having any ideawhich does not wholly consist of them. 13ut about these simplev’eas it exerts several acts of its own, whereby out of them, as thematerials and foundation of the rest, the others are trained. Theacts of the mind, wherein it exerts its power over its simple ideas,are chiefly these three: 1st, It combines several simple ideas intoone compound one; and thus all complex ideas are made. Silly,It brings two ideas, whether simple or complex, together, so as totake a view of them at once, without uniting them into one ; bywhich way it gets all its ideas of relations. Silly, It separates themfrom all other ideas that accompany them in their real existence;and thus all its general ideas are made. Complex ideas, howevercompounded or decompounded, though their number be inmate,and their variety endless, may all be reduced under these threebeads: 1st, Modes; 2dly Substances; 3rdly, Relations.

OF Modes, Substances, and Relations.

I. Modes are such complex ideas as contain not the suppositionof subsisting bv themselves: but are considered as dependences on,and affections of, substances; as triangle, gratitude, murder, See.These modes are of two sorts: 1st, .Simple; which are combi-nations of tlu; same simple idea ; as a dozen, score, &c. which arebut the ideas of so many distinct units put together, k’dly, Mixed ;which are compounded of simple ideas of several kinds; as beauty,which consists in a certain composition of colour and figure, caus-ing delight in the beholder; theft, which is the concealed changeof the possession of any thing, without the consent of the proprie-tor. These visibly contain a combination of ideas of severalHfrincls.

II. Substances. The ideas of substances are only such combi-nations of simple ideas, as are taken to represent distinct particularthings subsisting by themselves, in which the confused idea of sub-stance is always the chief. Tims a combination of the Ideas ofa certain figure, with the powers of motion, thought, and reason-ing, joined to substance, make the ordinary idea of man. Theseagain are either of single substances, as a man, a stone; or of col-lective, or several put together, as an army, a heap. Ideas ofseveral substances thus put together, are as much each of themone simple idea, as that of a man or an unit.

III. Relations consist in the consideration and comparison ofone idea with another. Of these in their order.

Of Space.

Modes, or modifications of any simple ideas are as perfectly dis-tinct ideas in the mind, as those of the greatest distance or con-trariety: thus, two is as distinct from three, as blueness from heat.Space is a simple idea which we get both by our sight and touch.•When we consider it barely' in length between two bodies, it iscalled distance; 'when in length, breadth, and thickness, it maybe called capacity. When considered between the extremities ofmatter, which tills the capacity of space with something solid, tan-gible, and moveable, it is called extension. And thus extensionis an idea belonging to a body; space may be conceived withoutit. Each different distance is a different modification of space ;and each idea of any different space is a simple mode of this idea.Such are inch, foot, yard, ike. When these ideas are made familiarto men’s thoughts, they can in their minds repeat them as often astiiey will, without joining to them the idea of body, and frame tothemselves the ideas of feet, yards, or fathoms, beyond the utmostbounds of all bodies; and, bv,adding these still one to another,enlarge their idea of space as much as they please.. From thispower of repeating any idea of distance, without being ever ableto come to an end, we come by the idea of immensity. Anothermodification of spree is taken from the relation of the parts of thetermination of extension or circumscribed space amongst them-selves; and lhi.; is what we call figure. Another mode belongingto tills head is that of place. Our idea of place is nothing but the

relative position of any thing with reference to its distance fromsome fixed and certain points; Whence we say, that a thing.or has not changed place, when its distance either is or is not al-tered with respect to those bodies with which we have occasion!®compare it; and hence we have the idea of motion.

Of Duration.

There is another sort of distance, the idea of which we get frontthe fleeting and perpetually perishing parts of success’on, which wecall duration. The simple modes ol it are any dilferent lengths otit whereof we have distinct ideas; as hours, days, years, time, &c.The idea of succession is got by reflecting on that train of ideas,which constantly follow one another in our minds as long asare awake. The distance between any parts of this succession iswhat we call duration; and the continuation of the existence ofourselves, or any tiling else, commensurate to the succession of anYideas in our minds, is what we call our own duration, or that otanother thing co-existing with our thinking. That this is so, apvpears hence, that we have no perception of succession or duration,when that succession of our ideas ceases, as in sleep : the momentthat we sleep, and awake, how distant soever, seems to be joinedand connected, provided the sleep be quite sound, and not inter-rupted by dreams. And we see that they whose thoughts are veryintent upon one thing, let slip out ot their account a good part ofthat duration, and think that time shorter than it is. But if a man,during his sleep, dream, and a variety of ideas make themselvesperceptible in his mind one after another, he hath then, duringsuch dreaming, a sense of duration. A man, having once got tin*idea of duration, can apply it to things which exist while he doe*not think; and tints we measure the time of our sleep, as well a*that wherein we are awake. Duration, as marked by certainperiods and measures, is what we most properly call time ; which wemeasure by tbe diurnal and annual revolutions of the sun, as beingconstant, regular, ami universally observable by man, and sup*posed equal to one another. By the same means, and from lh csame original that we have the idea of time, we have also son>*idea of eternity : for, having got the ideas of certain lengths of dti"ration, we can in our thoughts add them to one another as oft a*we please, without ever coming to an end. And thus it is plain*that from the two sources of all knowledge, sensation and reflection*we get the ideas of duration, and the several measures of it.

’ Of Number.

The complex ideas of number are formed by adding severalunits together. The simple modes of it are each several combi'nations, as two, three, &c. These are of all others most distinct*the nearest being as dearly different from each other as the ni« stremote ; two being as distinct from one, as 200. But it is hard t®form distinct ideas of every the least excess in extension. Henc edemonstrations in numbers are more general in their use, any-more determinate in their application, tlian those of extension.

Of Infinity.

The idea signified by the name infinity is best examined byconsidering to what infinity is by tbe mind attributed, and the 0how it frames it. Finite and infinite, then, are looked upon as th emodes of quantity ; and attributed primarily to things that haveparts, and are capable of increase or diminution by the addition otsubtraction of any the least part. Such are the ideas of space, dura-tion, and number. The next thing to be considered is, How we eon'®by the idea of infinity. Every one that has any idea of any state®lengths of spat e, as a foot, yard, &c. finds that he can repeat thatidea, and join it to another, to a third,, and so on, without evf rcoming to an end of his additions. From this power of enlargh’Shis idea of space, he takes the idea of infinite spare, or immensity"By the same power of repeating the idea of any length of durati® 0we have in our minds, with all the endless addition of numbers, " ecome by the idea of eternity.

Of the Modes of Thinking,

When the mind turns its view inwards upon itself, thinking isfirst idea that occurs : wherein it observes a great variety of modi'fications; and thereof frames to itself distinct ideas. Tims, tl 1<!perception annexed to any impression on the body made byexternal object, is called sensation. When an idea recurs with 0 , 1 *

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