Note 6 — ON LOCKE’S ESSAY ON THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING

This relates to what Mr. Locke says of unity, whom all succeeding writers have made a point of bringing forward on all occasions, merely for the purpose of differing from him. They set him up as the standard, or ne plus ultra of profound wisdom, and yet they always contrive to go beyond him. I will just add, by the bye, on this argument about number, that the fair way of putting it is by asking whether one combination of ideas is not different from another, or whether one foot or one inch is the same with thirty-six feet, or thirty-six inches, not whether one foot is the same as thirty-six inches. Otherwise there will remain a real distinction of number, both in idea and in fact.