5. Unsteady application of them.
Secondly, Another great abuse of words is inconstancy in the use of them. It is
hard to find a discourse written on any subject, especially of controversy, wherein one shall not observe, if he read
with attention, the same words (and those commonly the most material in the discourse, and upon which the
argument turns) used sometimes for one collection of simple ideas, and sometimes for another; which is a perfect
abuse of language. Words being intended for signs of my ideas, to make them known to others, not by any natural
signification, but by a voluntary imposition, it is plain cheat and abuse, when I make them stand sometimes for
one thing and sometimes for another; the wilful doing whereof can be imputed to nothing but great folly, or
greater dishonesty. And a man, in his accounts with another may, with as much fairness make the characters of
numbers stand sometimes for one and sometimes for another collection of units: v.g. this character 3, stand
sometimes for three, sometimes for four, and sometimes for eight, as in his discourse or reasoning make the same
words stand for different collections of simple ideas. If men should do so in their reckonings, I wonder who would
have to do with them? One who would speak thus in the affairs and business of the world, and call 8 sometimes
seven, and sometimes nine, as best served his advantage, would presently have clapped upon him, one of the two
names men are commonly disgusted with. And yet in arguings and learned contests, the same sort of proceedings
passes commonly for wit and learning; but to me it appears a greater dishonesty than the misplacing of counters in
the casting up a debt; and the cheat the greater, by how much truth is of greater concernment and value than
money.
