6. In other relations we may have many.
III. Thirdly, As to the relations of modes, mathematicians have framed
many axioms concerning that one relation of equality. As, "equals taken from equals, the remainder will be
equal"; which, with the rest of that kind, however they are received for maxims by the mathematicians, and are
unquestionable truths, yet, I think, that any one who considers them will not find that they have a clearer
self-evidence than these,--that "one and one are equal to two"; that "if you take from the five fingers of one hand
two, and from the five fingers of the other hand two, the remaining numbers will be equal." These and a thousand
other such propositions may be found in numbers, which, at the very first hearing, force the assent, and carry with
them an equal, if not greater clearness, than those mathematical axioms.
