51. Conclusion.
To conclude: what liberty Adam had at first to make any complex ideas of mixed modes by no
other pattern but by his own thoughts, the same have all men ever since had. And the same necessity of
conforming his ideas of substances to things without him, as to archetypes made by nature, that Adam was under,
if he would not wilfully impose upon himself, the same are all men ever since under too. The same liberty also
that Adam had of affixing any new name to any idea, the same has any one still, (especially the beginners of
languages, if we can imagine any such); but only with this difference, that, in places where men in society have
already established a language amongst them, the significations of words are very warily and sparingly to be
altered. Because men being furnished already with names for their ideas, and common use having appropriated
known names to certain ideas, an affected misapplication of them cannot but be very ridiculous. He that hath new
notions will perhaps venture sometimes on the coining of new terms to express them: but men think it a boldness,
and it is uncertain whether common use will ever make them pass for current. But in communication with others,
it is necessary that we conform the ideas we make the vulgar words of any language stand for to their known
proper significations, (which I have explained at large already), or else to make known that new signification we
apply them to.
