simple and illiterate never pretend to ABSTRACT NOTIONS. It is said
they are difficult and not to be attained without pains and study; we may
therefore reasonably conclude that, if such there be, they are confined
only to the learned.

11. I proceed to examine what can be alleged in DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINE
OF ABSTRACTION, and try if I can discover what it is that inclines the
men of speculation to embrace an opinion so remote from common sense as
that seems to be. There has been a late deservedly esteemed philosopher
who, no doubt, has given it very much countenance, by seeming to think
the having abstract general ideas is what puts the widest difference in
point of understanding betwixt man and beast. "The having of general
ideas," saith he, "is that which puts a perfect distinction betwixt man
and brutes, and is an excellency which the faculties of brutes do by no
means attain unto. For, it is evident we observe no foot-steps in them of
making use of general signs for universal ideas; from which we have
reason to imagine that they have not the FACULTY OF ABSTRACTING, or
making general ideas, since they have no use of words or any other
general signs." And a little after: "Therefore, I think, we may suppose
that it is in this that the species of brutes are discriminated from men,
and it is that proper difference wherein they are wholly separated, and
which at last widens to so wide a distance. For, if they have any ideas
at all, and are not bare machines (as some would have them), we cannot
deny them to have some reason. It seems as evident to me that they do,
some of them, in certain instances reason as that they have sense; but it
is only in particular ideas, just as they receive them from their senses.
They are the best of them tied up within those narrow bounds, and have
not (as I think) the faculty to enlarge them by any kind of
ABSTRACTION." Essay on Human Understanding, II. xi. 10 and 11. I readily
agree with this learned author, that the faculties of brutes can by no