OF COLLECTIVE IDEAS OF SUBSTANCES.
1. A collective idea is one Idea.
Besides these complex ideas of several SINGLE substances, as of man,
horse, gold, violet, apple, &c., the mind hath also complex COLLECTIVE
ideas of substances; which I so call, because such ideas are made up of
many particular substances considered together, as united into one
idea, and which so joined; are looked on as one; v. g. the idea of such
a collection of men as make an ARMY, though consisting of a great
number of distinct substances, is as much one idea as the idea of a
man: and the great collective idea of all bodies whatsoever, signified
by the name WORLD, is as much one idea as the idea of any the least
particle of matter in it; it sufficing to the unity of any idea, that
it be considered as one representation or picture, though made up of
ever so many particulars.
2. Made by the Power of composing in the Mind.
These collective ideas of substances the mind makes, by its power of
composition, and uniting severally either simple or complex ideas into
one, as it does, by the same faculty, make the complex ideas of
particular substances, consisting of an aggregate of divers simple
ideas, united in one substance. And as the mind, by putting together
the repeated ideas of unity, makes the collective mode, or complex
idea, of any number, as a score, or a gross, &c.,—so, by putting
together several particular substances, it makes collective ideas of
substances, as a troop, an army, a swarm, a city, a fleet; each of
which every one finds that he represents to his own mind by one idea,
in one view; and so under that notion considers those several things as
perfectly one, as one ship, or one atom. Nor is it harder to conceive
how an army of ten thousand men should make one idea than how a man
should make one idea; it being as easy to the mind to unite into one
the idea of a great number of men, and consider it as one as it is to
unite into one particular all the distinct ideas that make up the
composition of a man, and consider them all together as one.
3. Artificial things that are made up of distinct substances are our
collective Ideas.
Amongst such kind of collective ideas are to be counted most part of
artificial things, at least such of them as are made up of distinct
substances: and, in truth, if we consider all these collective ideas
aright, as ARMY, CONSTELLATION, UNIVERSE, as they are united into so
many single ideas, they are but the artificial draughts of the mind;
bringing things very remote, and independent on one another, into one
view, the better to contemplate and discourse on them, united into one
conception, and signified by one name. For there are no things so
remote, nor so contrary, which the mind cannot, by this art of
composition, bring into one idea; as is visible in that signified by
the name UNIVERSE.