i68 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book HI. 



fame manner we diftinguiOi vegetables and minerals from one an- 

 Ofher. But of. thefe particular ideas men, even in the tirft ages of 

 fociety, mufl h ve formed fome general ideas. And this too was ne- 

 ceflary for carrying on the bufinefs of civil life : For without thefe 

 general ideas tuey C(*nld not have had the ufe of language, as it was 

 impoffible for them to give a name to every individual thing, and 

 therefore it was neceflary to denominate things by the fpcciefes to 

 which they belong. How theie general ideas are formed, 1 have 

 likewife explained in Vol. V. *, where I have fhown that they are 

 formed by obferving that other objeds of fenfe have the lame pecu- 

 liar or diftinguilhing qualities, that we have obferved in the fingle 

 obje£t of which we have formed the particular idea. Men mud, 

 therefore, for the purpofes of tivil life, have formed ideas of the 

 lowed fpecieles. But it is not neceflary to fuppofe that they went 

 fo far as to form ideas of genufes; for that belongs to men farther 

 advanced in civil fociety. Thus, for example, they would form the 

 idea of different fpeciefes of animals, fuch as liorfes and oxen: But 

 they would not form the idea of the genus animal ; and, according- 

 ly, a name for that genus is not, 1 am perfuaded, to be found in 

 any of the barbarous languages. 



I will only add further upon the fubjeft of general ideas, that as 

 Mr Locke makes no diftindion betwixt the ideas of particular ob- 

 jeds and general ideas, it appears from that, as well as from fome 

 other things that I have elfewhere obferved, that he did not know what 

 ideas were, though he has faid fo much about them : For, as 1 have 

 obferved in the pafTage above quoted, it is impoffible to conceive 

 a general idea without particular ideas ; and if the particular idea is 

 Dot adually formed, and well formed, it is impoffible that tlie ge- 

 jieral idea can be whdt it ought to be. 



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 * Page 169. 



