24. Want of simple ideas that men are capable of having, but have not, because of their remoteness.
Secondly,
Another great cause of ignorance is the want of ideas we are capable of. As the want of ideas which our faculties
are not able to give us shuts us wholly from those views of things which it is reasonable to think other beings,
perfecter than we, have, of which we know nothing; so the want of ideas I now speak of keeps us in ignorance of
things we conceive capable of being known to us. Bulk, figure, and motion we have ideas of. But though we are
not without ideas of these primary qualities of bodies in general, yet not knowing what is the particular bulk,
figure, and motion, of the greatest part of the bodies of the universe, we are ignorant of the several powers,
efficacies, and ways of operation, whereby the effects which we daily see are produced. These are hid from us, in
some things by being too remote, and in others by being too minute. When we consider the vast distance of the
known and visible parts of the world, and the reasons we have to think that what lies within our ken is but a small
part of the universe, we shall then discover a huge abyss of ignorance. What are the particular fabrics of the great
masses of matter which make up the whole stupendous frame of corporeal beings; how far they are extended;
what is their motion, and how continued or communicated; and what influence they have one upon another, are
contemplations that at first glimpse our thoughts lose themselves in. If we narrow our contemplations, and confine
our thoughts to this little canton--I mean this system of our sun, and the grosser masses of matter that visibly
move about it, What several sorts of vegetables, animals, and intellectual corporeal beings, infinitely different
from those of our little spot of earth, may there probably be in the other planets, to the knowledge of which, even
of their outward figures and parts, we can no way attain whilst we are confined to this earth; there being no
natural means, either by sensation or reflection, to convey their certain ideas into our minds? They are out of the
reach of those inlets of all our knowledge: and what sorts of furniture and inhabitants those mansions contain in
them we cannot so much as guess, much less have clear and distinct ideas of them.
