3. Power includes relation.
I confess power includes in it some kind of relation, (a relation to action or change,) as
indeed which of our ideas, of what kind soever, when attentively considered, does not? For, our ideas of
extension, duration, and number, do they not all contain in them a secret relation of the parts? Figure and motion
have something relative in them much more visibly. And sensible qualities, as colours and smells, etc., what are
they but the powers of different bodies, in relation to our perception, etc.? And, if considered in the things
themselves, do they not depend on the bulk, figure, texture, and motion of the parts? All which include some kind
of relation in them. Our idea therefore of power, I think, may well have a place amongst other simple ideas, and
be considered as one of them; being one of those that make a principal ingredient in our complex ideas of
substances, as we shall hereafter have occasion to observe.
