420 Additional Notes, . 



arc no existences in nature corresponding to general terms, and 

 that the objects of our attention, in all our general speculations, 

 are not essences, forms, or ideas, but words. Thus they suppose 

 that, in the instance above selected, the word vegetable is the 

 proper object of thought. This word, having been adopted as 

 the representative of certain ideas collected from several genera 

 and species, is used, in a manner, analogous to an algebraic 

 character, which we employ throughout a process, without at- 

 tending to the quantity which it represents. This was the 

 doctrine of Zeno, of the stoics, of Roscelinus in the eleventh 

 century, and of his successor Abelard. 



The Concept ualists dissent from both of the above stated 

 opinions. They suppose that words are connected^ by eomtnon 

 consent, with certain attributes common to a number of genera 

 and species, and abstracted from all peculiarities. By the la.v 

 of the association of ideas, when the word vegc^.ble is pro- 

 nounced, all these attributes are drawn out of the ''>bi!ict of 

 memor}', and arranged, by the faculty of concepiicj , t,-.uie the 

 mind. This collection of ideas they suppose to be the object 

 about which the mind is exercised. We lose sight of the word, 

 and instantly attend to these conceptions. 



END OF VOL. 11. 



Frintcd by T. Davison, Whitefnaro 



8 6869 



