Herein, therefore, is founded the reality of our knowledge
concerning substances- That all our complex ideas of them must be
such, and such only, as are made up of such simple ones as have been
discovered to co-exist in nature. And our ideas being thus true,
though not perhaps very exact copies, are yet the subjects of real (as
far as we have any) knowledge of them. Which (as has been already
shown) will not be found to reach very far: but so far as it does,
it will still be real knowledge. Whatever ideas we have, the agreement
we find they have with others will still be knowledge. If those
ideas be abstract, it will be general knowledge. But to make it real
concerning substances, the ideas must be taken from the real existence
of things. Whatever simple ideas have been found to co-exist in any
substance, these we may with confidence join together again, and so
make abstract ideas of substances. For whatever have once had an union
in nature, may be united again.
13. In our inquiries about substances, we must consider ideas, and
not confine our thoughts to names or species supposed set out by
names. This, if we rightly consider, and confine not our thoughts
and abstract ideas to names, as if there were, or could be no other
sorts of things than what known names had already determined, and,
as it were, set out, we should think of things with greater freedom
and less confusion than perhaps we do.
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