"--
FRENCH.] notions.
And, indeed, in our early years, the mind was so immersed in the
body, that, although it perceived many things with sufficient
clearness, it yet knew nothing distinctly; and since even at that
time we exercised our judgment in many matters, numerous prejudices
were thus contracted, which, by the majority, are never afterwards
laid aside. But that we may now be in a position to get rid of
these, I will here briefly enumerate all the simple notions of which
our thoughts are composed, and distinguish in each what is clear
from what is obscure, or fitted to lead into error.
XLVIII. That all the objects of our knowledge are to be regarded
either (1) as things or the affections of things: or (2) as eternal
truths; with the enumeration of things.
Whatever objects fall under our knowledge we consider either as
things or the affections of things,[Footnote: Things and the
affections of things are (in the French) equivalent to "what has
some (i.e., a REAL) existence," as opposed to the class of "eternal
truths," which have merely an IDEAL existence.] or as eternal truths
possessing no existence beyond our thought.
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