Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 377 



ticular and indlvidaal things. That thefe two are not the fame, and, that 

 ideas are quite different from fenfationsjnot indegree» but in kind, I hope 

 I have already fully proved. And I think I have alfo made it evident, 

 that there can be no fcience or truth, of any kind, without ideas. And, 

 accordingly, we cannot con'ceive any propofition, of which one of the 

 terms, at leaft, is not an idea ; for, fuppofing the propofition to be af- 

 firming or denying lomething of a particular thing, fuch as an object 

 of fenfe, that which we affirm or deny muft be an idea or a general ; 

 for, fuppofe that it is a property, which we fay belongs or does not 

 belong to it, as, for example, that it is, or is not, round or fquare, white 

 or black, k is the idea of that property which we affirm or deny: Or, if 

 the propofition were fimply, that the particular thing exifts or does not 

 exift, ft ill It would be the idea of exiflence that we affirmed or denied 

 of the thing: Or, if the propofition were, that one particular thing 

 was not another, even, in that cafe, the praedlcate of the propofition 

 would be the idea of di'verfity ; for the meaning of the propofition is, 

 that the two things are different. 



Thus, it appears, that, though both terms of a propofitioii 

 may be general, yet both cannot be particular. And hence comes 

 a divifion of propofitions, which is to be attended to, into thofe 

 of which both the terms are general, and thofe of which one of 

 them only, viz. the praedicate, is a general, and \h^fubjeti a par- 



B b b ticular 



the fame reafon, namely, that the genius of our language is fo flinted in arrangement 

 and compofition, that we can put the negative only after the verb, but not before it. 



Thefe things, I know, it will be faid, are true indeed, but they are ufelefs fubtle- 

 tles. difficult trifles ; but it is to be conHdered, that words are the fymbols or figns, 

 which we ufe in reafoning ; and, if we do not know the force of them, whether 

 fingly or in propofitions, we can no more reafon well, than we can folve an arithme- 

 tical or algebraical problem, without knowing the import of the cyphers or cha- 

 rafters we ufe. 



