For, as
the mind, to make general ideas comprehending several particulars,
leaves out those of time and place, and such other, that make them
incommunicable to more than one individual; so to make other yet
more general ideas, that may comprehend different sorts, it leaves out
those qualities that distinguish them, and puts into its new
collection only such ideas as are common to several sorts. The same
convenience that made men express several parcels of yellow matter
coming from Guinea and Peru under one name, sets them also upon making
of one name that may comprehend both gold and silver, and some other
bodies of different sorts. This is done by leaving out those
qualities, which are peculiar to each sort, and retaining a complex
idea made up of those that are common to them all. To which the name
metal being annexed, there is a genus constituted; the essence whereof
being that abstract idea, containing only malleableness and
fusibility, with certain degrees of weight and fixedness, wherein some
bodies of several kinds agree, leaves out the colour and other
qualities peculiar to gold and silver, and the other sorts
comprehended under the name metal. Whereby it is plain that men follow
not exactly the patterns set them by nature, when they make their
general ideas of substances; since there is no body to be found
which has barely malleableness and fusibility in it, without other
qualities as inseparable as those.
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