CHAPTER lII. Sag Imaginary ideas, which are also called fantastical or chimeri- cal, are such as are made by enlarging, diminishing, uniting, dividing real ideas in the mind, in such a manner, as no objects, or examples, did or ever will exist, according to the present course of nature, though the several parts of these ideas are borrowed from real objects ; such are the conceptions we have of a centaur, a satyr, a golden mountain, a flying horse, a dog without a head, a bull less than a mouse, or a mouse as big as a bull, and a man twenty feet high. Some of these fantastical ideas are possible, that is, they are not utterly inconsistent in the nature of things ; and therefore it is within the reach of divine power to make such objects ; suele are most of the instances already given ; but impossible carry an utter inconsistence in the ideas which are joined ; such are self - active matter, and infinite or eternal men, a pious man without honesty, or heaven without holiness. SECTION IV. The Division of Ideas, with regard to their Qualities. IDEAS, with regard to their qualities afford us these seve- ral divisions of them. 1. They are either clear and distinct, or obscure and confused. 2. They are vulgar or learned. 3. They areperfect or imperfect. 4. They are true or false. I. Our ideas are either clear and distinct, or obscure and Confused. Several writers have distinguished the clear ideas from those that are distinct ; and the confused ideas from those that are ob- scure ; and it must be acknowledged, there may be borne differ - ence between them ; for it is the clearness of ideas for the most part makes them distinct : and obscurity of ideas is one thing that will always bring a sort of confusion into them. Yet when these writers come to talk largely upon this subject, and to ex- plain and adjust their meaning with great nicety, I have generally found that they did not keep up the distinction they first designed, but they confound the one with the other. I shall therefore treat of clear or distinct ideas, as one and the same sort, and obscure or confused ideas, as another. A clear and distinct idea is that which represents the object of the mind with full evidence and strength, and plainly distinguishes it from all other objects whatsoever. An obscure and confused idea represents the object either so faintly, so imperfectly, or so mingled with other ideas, that the object of it dotti not appear plain to the mind, nor purely in its own nature, nor sufficiently distinguished from other thiog9. When we see the sea, and sky nearer at hand, we have a clear and distinct isles of each ; but when we look far, toward the horizon, especially in a misty day, our ideas of both are but obscure and confused; for we know not which is sea and which
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