14. IV. Fourthly, by taking Words for Things.

FOURTHLY, Another great abuse of words is, the TAKING THEM FOR THINGS.
This, though it in some degree concerns all names in general, yet more
particularly affects those of substances. To this abuse those men are
most subject who most confine their thoughts to any one system, and
give themselves up into a firm belief of the perfection of any received
hypothesis: whereby they come to be persuaded that the terms of that
sect are so suited to the nature of things, that they perfectly
correspond with their real existence. Who is there that has been bred up
in the Peripatetick philosophy, who does not think the Ten Names, under
which are ranked the Ten Predicaments, to be exactly conformable to the
nature of things? Who is there of that school that is not persuaded that
SUBSTANTIAL FORMS, VEGETATIVE SOULS, ABHORRENCE OF A VACUUM, INTENTIONAL
SPECIES, &c., are something real? These words men have learned from
their very entrance upon knowledge, and have found their masters and
systems lay great stress upon them: and therefore they cannot quit
the opinion, that they are conformable to nature, and are the
representations of something that really exists. The Platonists have
their SOUL OF THE WORLD, and the Epicureans their ENDEAVOR TOWARDS
MOTION in their atoms when at rest. There is scarce any sect in
philosophy has not a distinct set of terms that others understand not.
But yet this gibberish, which, in the weakness of human understanding,
serves so well to palliate men's ignorance, and cover their errors,
comes, by familiar use amongst those of the same tribe, to seem the
most important part of language, and of all other the terms the most
significant: and should AERIAL and OETHERIAL VEHICLES come once, by the
prevalency of that doctrine, to be generally received anywhere, no doubt
those terms would make impressions on men's minds, so as to establish
them in the persuasion of the reality of such things, as much as