10. And distinct and conformable ideas in words that stand for substances.
In the names of substances, for a right
use of them, something more is required than barely determined ideas. In these the names must also be
conformable to things as they exist; but of this I shall have occasion to speak more at large by and by. This
exactness is absolutely necessary in inquiries after philosophical knowledge, and in controversies about truth. And
though it would be well, too, if it extended itself to common conversation and the ordinary affairs of life; yet I
think that is scarce to be expected. Vulgar notions suit vulgar discourses: and both, though confused enough, yet
serve pretty well the market and the wake. Merchants and lovers, cooks and tailors, have words wherewithal to
dispatch their ordinary affairs: and so, I think, might philosophers and disputants too, if they had a mind to
understand, and to be clearly understood.
