11. General and universal are creatures of the understanding, and belong not to the real existence of things.
To
return to general words: it is plain, by what has been said, that general and universal belong not to the real
existence of things; but are the inventions and creatures of the understanding, made by it for its own use, and
concern only signs, whether words or ideas. Words are general, as has been said, when used for signs of general
ideas, and so are applicable indifferently to many particular things; and ideas are general when they are set up as
the representatives of many particular things: but universality belongs not to things themselves, which are all of
them particular in their existence, even those words and ideas which in their signification are general. When
therefore we quit particulars, the generals that rest are only creatures of our own making; their general nature
being nothing but the capacity they are put into, by the understanding, of signifying or representing many
particulars. For the signification they have is nothing but a relation that, by the mind of man, is added to them.
