For, since all distinct ideas must
eternally be known not to be the same, and so be universally and
constantly denied one of another, there could be no room for any
positive knowledge at all, if we could not perceive any relation
between our ideas, and find out the agreement or disagreement they
have one with another, in several ways the mind takes of comparing
them.
6. Of their necessary co-existence in substances. Thirdly, The third
sort of agreement or disagreement to be found in our ideas, which
the perception of the mind is employed about, is co-existence or
non-co-existence in the same subject; and this belongs particularly to
substances. Thus when we pronounce concerning gold, that it is
fixed, our knowledge of this truth amounts to no more but this, that
fixedness, or a power to remain in the fire unconsumed, is an idea
that always accompanies and is joined with that particular sort of
yellowness, weight, fusibility, malleableness, and solubility in
aqua regia, which make our complex idea signified by the word gold,
7. Of real existence agreeing to any idea. Fourthly, The fourth
and last sort is that of actual real existence agreeing to any idea.
Within these four sorts of agreement or disagreement is, I
suppose, contained all the knowledge we have, or are capable of For
all the inquiries we can make concerning any of our ideas, all that we
know or can affirm concerning any of them, is, That it is, or is
not, the same with some other; that it does or does not always coexist
with some other idea in the same subject; that it has this or that
relation with some other idea; or that it has a real existence without
the mind.
Pages:
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789