6. Relation only betwixt two things. Whatsoever doth or can exist,
or be considered as one thing is positive: and so not only simple
ideas and substances, but modes also, are positive beings: though
the parts of which they consist are very often relative one to
another: but the whole together considered as one thing, and producing
in us the complex idea of one thing, which idea is in our minds, as
one picture, though an aggregate of divers parts, and under one
name, it is a positive or absolute thing, or idea. Thus a triangle,
though the parts thereof compared one to another be relative, yet
the idea of the whole is a positive absolute idea. The same may be
said of a family, a tune, &c.; for there can be no relation but
betwixt two things considered as two things. There must always be in
relation two ideas or things, either in themselves really separate, or
considered as distinct, and then a ground or occasion for their
comparison.
7. All things capable of relation. Concerning relation in general,
these things may be considered:
First, That there is no one thing, whether simple idea, substance,
mode, or relation, or name of either of them, which is not capable
of almost an infinite number of considerations in reference to other
things: and therefore this makes no small part of men's thoughts and
words: v.
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