and to which he should keep it steadily annexed during that present discourse. Where he does not or cannot do this, he in vain pretends to clear or distinct ideas: it is plain his are not so; and therefore there can be expected nothing but obscurity and confusion, where such terms are made use of which have not such a precise determination. Upon this ground I have thought "determined ideas" a way of speaking less liable to mistake than "clear and distinct:" and where men have got such determined ideas of all that they reason, inquire, or argue about, they will find a great part of their doubts and disputes at an end. The greatest part of the questions and controversies that perplex mankind, depending on the doubtful and uncertain use of words, or (which is the same) indetermined ideas, which they are made to stand for; I have made choice of these terms to signify, 1. Some immediate object of the mind, which it perceives and has before it, distinct from the sound it uses as a sign of it. 2. That this idea, thus determined, i. e. which the mind has in itself, and knows and sees there, be determined without any change to that name, and that name determined to that precise idea. If men had such determined ideas in their inquiries and discourses, they would both discern how far their own inquiries and discourses went, and avoid the greatest part of the disputes and wranglings they have with others. An inquiry into the Understanding pleasant and useful. -Since it is the Understanding that sets man above the rest of sensible beings, and gives him all the advantage and dominion which he has over them, it is certainly a subject, even for its nobleness, worth our labour to in- quire into. The Understanding, like the eye, whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no no- tice of itself; and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance, and make it its own object. But whatever be the difficulties that lie in the way of this inquiry; what- ever it be that keeps us so much in the dark to ourselves, sure I am that all the light we can let in upon our own minds, all the acquaintance we can make with our own Understandings, will not only be very pleasant, but B Design. This therefore being my purpose, to inquire hath no sufficient means to attain a certain knowledge Method.-It is therefore worth while to search out the First, I shall inquire into the Original of those Ideas, Secondly, I shall endeavour to show what Knowledge Thirdly, I shall make some inquiry into the nature Useful to know the extent of our comprehension.—If, by |