1819 May 11

Jug. Util Sine & Sub Rev. in gross

II Verity in gross

§ 7 Mind fictitious entity

Of no objects but bodies is the reality the existence made known to us by experience or observation – and known to us by the impressions made by them is the reality – the existence made known to us: of no objects but individual objects such as this man, that dog, that horse: and one and the same mass of matter is considered as being but one body or as consisting of a number of bodies according to the occasion which we have to speak of it. Thus even the whole earth is frequently considered as but one body: the whole earth with all that therein is.

In the whole field of discourse not a step can we take without a fiction of this kind. He is in motion we say of such or such a horse. But by saying he is in motion what do we do but speak of motion as being a body big enough to contain a horse, and of the horse as being in that body. He is at rest we say again suppose of a horse: he is at rest: in so saying we speak of rest as if it were a post or pillar, and the horse standing close to it.

In this way we come to speak of motion as if it were a real thing separate and distinct from any thing /object/ that ever is in motion: and so real that we have /make/ sorts of motions as we make sorts of men, and dogs and horses. We speak of action which is but motion considered in a particular point of view. We speak of activity: the quality of activity: and thus we have a fictitious entity of another sort, still further from reality. we speak of activity as a quality which is in this or that man: we speak of laziness which is the absence of activity or the aversion /averseness/ to action: thus we form the fictitious entities called qualities: we speak of dispositions a class of fictitious entities still further removed from real ones: disposition to possess or manifest qualities: to posses or manifest for example activity or laziness.