Though the Peripatetick philosophy has been
most eminent in this way, yet other sects have not been wholly clear
of it. There are scarce any of them that are not cumbered with some
difficulties (such is the imperfection of human knowledge,) which they
have been fain to cover with obscurity of terms, and to confound the
signification of words, which, like a mist before people's eyes, might
hinder their weak parts from being discovered. That body and extension
in common use, stand for two distinct ideas, is plain to any one
that will but reflect a little. For were their signification precisely
the same, it would be as proper, and as intelligible to say, "the body
of an extension," as the "extension of a body"; and yet there are
those who find it necessary to confound their signification. To this
abuse, and the mischiefs of confounding the signification of words,
logic, and the liberal sciences as they have been handled in the
schools, have given reputation; and the admired Art of Disputing
hath added much to the natural imperfection of languages, whilst it
has been made use of and fitted to perplex the signification of words,
more than to discover the knowledge and truth of things: and he that
will look into that sort of learned writings, will find the words
there much more obscure, uncertain, and undetermined in their meaning,
than they are in ordinary conversation.
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