12. Idiots and madmen.
How far idiots are concerned in the want or weakness of any, or all of the foregoing
faculties, an exact observation of their several ways of faultering would no doubt discover. For those who either
perceive but dully, or retain the ideas that come into their minds but ill, who cannot readily excite or compound
them, will have little matter to think on. Those who cannot distinguish, compare, and abstract, would hardly be
able to understand and make use of language, or judge or reason to any tolerable degree; but only a little and
imperfectly about things present, and very familiar to their senses. And indeed any of the forementioned faculties,
if wanting, or out of order, produce suitable defects in men's understandings and knowledge.
