cious in combining images of gloom and suffering. Hence a quick and powerful imagination is no small aid in the exercise of the sympathetic feelings. Accordingly, when two men, (the one a person of imagination, the other not,) meet a poor man who has suddenly been reduced to poverty, they will be found to have different degrees of sympathy for him. The latter no doubt will pity the unfortunate man; but the former will pity him more. He will think of his former situation; he will follow him to his dwelling; he will see in his "prophetic eye" the tears of his family; in a word, he will, as a general statement, have more feeling for all individuals in suffering, and consequently, be more likely to lend his aid to alleviate it.

Thus, in Sterne's Sentimental Journey, he is led by some circumstance to think of a captive in one of the French State Prisons. He gives the reins to his imagination; "and looks through the twilight of the grated door to take the picture.— I beheld, (says he,) his body half wasted with long expectation and confinement, and felt what kind of sickness of the heart it is which arises from hope deferred. Upon looking nearer, I saw him pale and feverish. In thirty years, the western breeze had not fanned his blood. He had seen no sun, no moon, in all that time; nor had the voice of friend or kinsman breathed through his lattice.His childrenBut here my heart began to bleed, and I was forced to go on with another part of the portrait."

CHAPTER FIFTEENTH.

COMPLEX IDEAS OF INTERNAL ORIGIN.

§. 319. Of complex ideas of external origin.

It will be recollected, that, in considering that portion of our knowledge which has an external origin, our mental states were examined in relation to their Simplicity and Complexness. The names of colors, as red, white, yellow, green, &c, were spoken of as being expressive of simple ideas, or rather of simple sensations. The character of simplicity belongs also to the original intimations of the touch, and to the original sensations of the hearing, smell, and taste. Other names,

as loadstone, tree, sun, gold, and the like, were referred to, as expressive of complex notions. It was laid down, as characteristic of simple notions, that they are one and inseparable, while such as are complex embrace any number of simple ideas more than one.

But in respect to complex notions of an external origin, there is this further and obvious characteristic. When they are ascertained with suitable care, they are just what the forms of external nature have constituted them, being neither more nor less extensive. In our complex notions, for instance, of a loadstone, a tree, the sun, animal, man, horse, gold,&c, we embrace precisely what nature has allotted to the objects themselves; that is to say, if our complex ideas in these particular cases be properly and fully formed. Nature, as she exists external to the mind, has placed a limit on combinations of this kind, which we are clearly not at liberty to disregard.

§. 320. Nature of complex ideas of internal origin.

But in considering, as we do at present, that portion of our knowledge, which is not directly dependent on external objects, we are naturally led to remark on complex notions of internal origin. Complex ideas of this description are like all others, in being composed of elementary parts which are simple. Original Suggestion, Consciousness, Relative Suggestion, and the Reasoning power, which are the great sources of internal knowledge, are all fountains of new simple views. A multitude of thoughts, unknown to the mind before, arise from these various sources, which are not susceptible of being resolved into others more elementary. But while we cannot resolve, we are able to combine them in a variety of ways almost endless.

But the prominent characteristic of the complex mental states now under consideration is not, that the elementary parts come, in a great degree, from these sources, it is rather the mind's agency in forming them. We are not limited, in the process of combination, by any precise complication of qualities in outward objects, which is the fact, in respect to complex notions of external origin; but may bring together ideas of the same or of different kinds, and may form new wholes of every imaginable description. Such new notions, considered in reference to what they are in their complex state, are purely creatures of the mind, fashioned by the mind's choice, and capable of being altered, according to the mere dictates of that choice, into every degree of enlargement and diminution, and into every novelty of aspect. It is on this ground chiefly, that they are characterized as being of internal, rather than of external origin.

§. 321. Of complex notions formed by the repetition of the same thing.

In some instances we find the same ideas repeated a greater or less number of times, and susceptible of enlargement and variety by the mere addition or multiplication of itself. By means of such repetition we become possessed of various complex notions, which are distinguished from others, merely in being modifications of the same original thought, carried on to a greater or less extent, but without any intermixture of foreign materials.

Of the ideas of this class are such as are expressed by the words, hour, day, week, month, and year; which are framed by the modification, and the adding together, as it were, of our elementary notions of time. Artificial measures of extension, such as an inch, foot, yard, furlong, and mile, although they are based upon something which is directly addressed to the outward senses, are nevertheless, in themselves considered, the arbitrary creations of the mind, and of course belong here.To this class also belong the complex ideas of number, as a dozen, a score, an hundred, a thousand, which are formed by the repeated addition of units, as far as the collections specified by those names.

The origin of the elementary notion of unity or oneness was explained on a former occasion; and it is not only one of the earliest, but one of the most distinct notions men have. This simple elementary idea lays the foundation of all the numerous and diversified combinations of numbers. And it is worthy of remark, that these combinations, although they are carried to a wonderful extent, are exceedingly distinct in the mind's conception of them; so as to be but seldom confounded with each other, or attended with any perplexity. There is, for instance, no confusion and indistinctness in the complex idea, expressed by the word MILLION, although it might not be unreasonable to expect it, when we consider the vast number of subordinate parts embraced in it. But this is owing in part to certain facilities afforded to the mind by the numerical signs used, and by language in particular.

§. 322. Of the help afforded by names in the combination of numbers.

A certain writer remarks on the skillful formation of the names of numbers, and on the assistance afforded by them, in the following terms. "And here we may take notice of a wonderful artifice made use of by the mind, to facilitate and help itself forward in its conceptions. For as the advance from number to number is endless, were they all to be distinguished by different denominations that had no connexion or dependence one upon another, the multitude of them must soon overcharge the memory, and render it impossible for us to go any great way in the progress of numbering. For this reason it is so contrived, that the change of names is restrained.

to a few of the first combinations, all the rest that follow being marked by a repetition of the same terms, variously compounded and linked together. Thus thirteen is ten and three, fourteen, ten and four, and so on to twenty or two tens, when we begin again with one, two, &c. until we advance to thirty, or three tens. In this manner the progression continues; and when we arrive at ten tens, to prevent confusion by a too frequent repetition of the same word, that sum is distinguished by the name of a hundred. Again, ten - hundred is called a thousand, at which period the computation begins anew, running through all the former combinations, as ten thousand, a hundred thousand, ten hundred thousand; which last collection, for the reasons mentioned above, has the name of million appropriated to it. With this million, we can begin as before, until it is repeated a million of times; when, if we change the denomination to billions, and advance in the same manner through trillions, quartillions, &c, the series may be carried on without confusion, to any length we please.

This artful combination of names to mark the gradual increase of numbers, is perhaps one of the greatest refinements of the human understanding, and particularly deserves our admiration for the manner of the composition; the several denominations being so contrived as to distinguish exactly the stages of the progression, and point out the distance from the beginning of the series. By this means it happens, that our ideas of numbers are of all others the most accurate and distinct; nor does the multitude of units assembled together, in the least puzzle or confound the understanding." *

§. 323. Instances of complex notions made up of different simple ideas.

The instances, which have been given, will perhaps be sufficient in illustration of those complex notions, where the combination is limited to one original element. And we shall now proceed to the consideration of those cases, where the act of combining is of a more complicated kind; and these are much more numerous than the others. Men are neces

-The same subject

* Duncan's Elements of Logic, Bk. I, Chap. 4.is examined also and illustrated by Mr. Locke in that part of his Essay, which treats of Mixed Modes.