CHAPTER It. 327 in particular in those sciences which have assumed them severally as their proper subjects. SECT. V. -Of the ten Categories. Of Substance modjfied.., WE have thus given an account of the two chief objects of our ideas, namely, substances and modes, and their various kinds : and in these last Sections we have briefly comprised th,, greatest part of what is necessary in the famous ten ranks of being, called the ten predicaments, or categories of Aristotle, on which there are endless volumes of discourses formed by several of his followers. But that the reader may not be utterly igno- rant of them, let him know the names are these : substance, quantity, quality, relation, action, passion, where, when, situ- ation, and clothing. It would be mere loss of time to show how loose, how injudicious, and even ridiculous, is this ten-fold divi- sion of things ; and whatsoever farther relates to them, and which may tend to improve useful knowledge, should be sought in ontology, and in other sciences. Besides substance and mode, some of the moderns would have us consider the substance modified, as a distinct object of our ideas ; but I think there is nothing more that need be said on this subject than this, namely, There is some difference be- tween a substance when it is considered with all its modes about it, or clothed in all its manners of existence, and when it is dis- tinguished from them, and considered naked without them. SECT. VL -Of Not- being. AS being is divided into substance and mode, so we may consider not-being with regard to both these. I. Not-being is considered as excluding all substance, and then all modes are also necessarily excluded,; and this we call pure niltility, or mere nothing. This nothing is taken either in a vulgar or a philosophical sense ; so we say, there is nothing in the cup, in a vulgar sense, when we mean there is no liquor in it ; but we cannot say there is nothing in the cup, in a strict philosophical sense, where there is air in it, and perhaps a million of rays of light are there. H. Not - being, as it has relation to modes or manners of being, may be considered either as mere negation, or as a pri- vation. A negation is the absence of that which does not naturally belong to the things we are speaking of, or which has no right, obligation, or necessity to be present with it ; as when we say a stone is inanimate, or blind, or deaf, that is, it has no life, nor sight, nor hearing ; nor when we say a carpenter or a fisherman is unlearned, these are mere negations. But a privation is the absence of what does naturally be- long to the things we are speaking of, or which ought to be pre-
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