Another thing we may observe from
what has been said is, That the names of mixed modes always signify
(when they have any determined signification) the real essences of
their species. For, these abstract ideas being the workmanship of
the mind, and not referred to the real existence of things, there is
no supposition of anything more signified by that name, but barely
that complex idea the mind itself has formed; which is all it would
have expressed by it; and is that on which all the properties of the
species depend, and from which alone they all flow: and so in these
the real and nominal essence is the same; which, of what concernment
it is to the certain knowledge of general truth, we shall see
hereafter.
15. Why their names are usually got before their ideas. This also
may show us the reason why for the most part the names of fixed
modes are got before the ideas they stand for are perfectly known.
Because there being no species of these ordinarily taken notice of but
what have names, and those species, or rather their essences, being
abstract complex ideas, made arbitrarily by the mind, it is
convenient, if not necessary, to know the names, before one
endeavour to frame these complex ideas: unless a man will fill his
head with a company of abstract complex ideas, which, others having no
names for, he has nothing to do with, but to lay by and forget
again.
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