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This piece of matter, thus denominated zahab by Adam, being quite different from any he had seen before,
nobody, I think, will deny to be a distinct species, and to have its peculiar essence: and that the name zahab is the
mark of the species, and a name belonging to all things partaking in that essence. But here it is plain the essence
Adam made the name zahab stand for was nothing but a body hard, shining, yellow, and very heavy. But the
inquisitive mind of man, not content with the knowledge of these, as I may say, superficial qualities, puts Adam
upon further examination of this matter. He therefore knocks, and beats it with flints, to see what was
discoverable in the inside: he finds it yield to blows, but not easily separate into pieces: he finds it will bend
without breaking. Is not now ductility to be added to his former idea, and made part of the essence of the species
that name zahab stands for? Further trials discover fusibility and fixedness. Are not they also, by the same reason
that any of the others were, to be put into the complex idea signified by the name zahab? If not, what reason will
there be shown more for the one than the other? If these must, then all the other properties, which any further
trials shall discover in this matter, ought by the same reason to make a part of the ingredients of the complex idea
which the name zahab stands for, and so be the essence of the species marked by that name. Which properties,
because they are endless, it is plain that the idea made after this fashion, by this archetype, will be always
inadequate.
