11. Names of substances of doubtful signification, because the ideas they stand for relate to the reality of things.
If
the signification of the names of mixed modes be uncertain, because there be no real standards existing in nature
to which those ideas are referred, and by which they may be adjusted, the names of substances are of a doubtful
signification, for a contrary reason, viz., because the ideas they stand for are supposed conformable to the reality
of things, and are referred to as standards made by Nature. In our ideas of substances we have not the liberty, as in
mixed modes, to frame what combinations we think fit, to be the characteristical notes to rank and denominate
things by. In these we must follow Nature, suit our complex ideas to real existences, and regulate the signification
of their names by the things themselves, if we will have our names to be signs of them, and stand for them. Here,
it is true, we have patterns to follow; but patterns that will make the signification of their names very uncertain:
for names must be of a very unsteady and various meaning, if the ideas they stand for be referred to standards
without us, that either cannot be known at all, or can be known but imperfectly and uncertainly.
