without the existence of so much as one individual of that kind. For,
were there now no circle existing anywhere in the world, (as perhaps
that figure exists not anywhere exactly marked out,) yet the idea
annexed to that name would not cease to be what it is; nor cease to be
as a pattern to determine which of the particular figures we meet with
have or have not a right to the NAME circle, and so to show which of
them, by having that essence, was of that species. And though there
neither were nor had been in nature such a beast as an UNICORN, or such
a fish as a MERMAID; yet, supposing those names to stand for complex
abstract ideas that contained no inconsistency in them, the essence of a
mermaid is as intelligible as that of a man; and the idea of an unicorn
as certain, steady, and permanent as that of a horse. From what has been
said, it is evident, that the doctrine of the immutability of essences
proves them to be only abstract ideas; and is founded on the relation
established between them and certain sounds as signs of them; and
will always be true, as long as the same name can have the same
signification.


20. Recapitulation.

To conclude. This is that which in short I would say, viz. that all the
great business of GENERA and SPECIES, and their ESSENCES, amounts to no
more but this:--That men making abstract ideas, and settling them in
their minds with names annexed to them, do thereby enable themselves to
consider things, and discourse of them, as it were in bundles, for the
easier and readier improvement and communication of their knowledge,
which would advance but slowly were their words and thoughts confined
only to particulars.