9. This shows species to be made for communication.
The reason why I take so particular notice of this is, that we
may not be mistaken about genera and species, and their essences, as if they were things regularly and constantly
made by nature, and had a real existence in things; when they appear, upon a more wary survey, to be nothing else
but an artifice of the understanding, for the easier signifying such collections of ideas as it should often have
occasion to communicate by one general term; under which divers particulars, as far forth as they agreed to that
abstract idea, might be comprehended. And if the doubtful signification of the word species may make it sound
harsh to some, that I say the species of mixed modes are "made by the understanding"; yet, I think, it can by
nobody be denied that it is the mind makes those abstract complex ideas to which specific names are given. And if
it be true, as it is, that the mind makes the patterns for sorting and naming of things, I leave it to be considered
who makes the boundaries of the sort or species; since with me species and sort have no other difference than that
of a Latin and English idiom.
