Which relation of the outward angle to either of
the opposite internal angles, making no part of the complex idea
signified by the name triangle, this is a real truth, and conveys with
it instructive real knowledge.
9. General propositions concerning substances are often trifling. We
having little or no knowledge of what combinations there be of
simple ideas existing together in substances, but by our senses, we
cannot make any universal certain propositions concerning them, any
further than our nominal essences lead us. Which being to a very few
and inconsiderable truths, in respect of those which depend on their
real constitutions, the general propositions that are made about
substances, if they are certain, are for the most part but trifling;
and if they are instructive, are uncertain, and such as we can have no
knowledge of their real truth, how much soever constant observation
and analogy may assist our judgment in guessing. Hence it comes to
pass, that one may often meet with very clear and coherent discourses,
that amount yet to nothing. For it is plain that names of
substantial beings, as well as others, as far as they have relative
significations affixed to them, may, with great truth, be joined
negatively and affirmatively in propositions, as their relative
definitions make them fit to be so joined; and propositions consisting
of such terms, may, with the same clearness, be deduced one from
another, as those that convey the most real truths: and all this
without any knowledge of the nature or reality of things existing
without us.
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