He takes care that his idea be conformable
to this archetype, and intends the name should stand for an idea so
conformable.
47. This piece of matter, thus denominated zahab by Adam, being
quite different from any he had seen before, nobody, I think, will
deny to be a distinct species, and to have its peculiar essence: and
that the name zahab is the mark of the species, and a name belonging
to all things partaking in that essence. But here it is plain the
essence Adam made the name zahab stand for was nothing but a body
hard, shining, yellow, and very heavy. But the inquisitive mind of
man, not content with the knowledge of these, as I may say,
superficial qualities, puts Adam upon further examination of this
matter. He therefore knocks, and beats it with flints, to see what was
discoverable in the inside: he finds it yield to blows, but not easily
separate into pieces: he finds it will bend without breaking. Is not
now ductility to be added to his former idea, and made part of the
essence of the species that name Zahab stands for? Further trials
discover fusibility and fixedness. Are not they also, by the same
reason that any of the others were, to be put into the complex idea
signified by the name zahab? If not, what reason will there be shown
more for the one than the other? If these must, then all the other
properties, which any further trials shall discover in this matter,
ought by the same reason to make a part of the ingredients of the
complex idea which the name zahab stands for, and so be the essence of
the species marked by that name.
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