CHAPTER XXV.
OF RELATION.
1.

Relation, what.
BESIDES the ideas, whether simple or complex, that the mind has of things as they are in themselves, there are others it gets from their comparison one with another.

The understanding, in the consideration of anything, is not confined to that precise object: it can carry any idea as it were beyond itself, or at least look beyond it, to see how it stands in conformity to any other.

When the mind so considers one thing, that it does as it were bring it to, and set it by another, and carries its view from one to the other--this is, as the words import, RELATION and RESPECT; and the denominations given to positive things, intimating that respect, and serving as marks to lead the thoughts beyond the subject itself denominated, to something distinct from it, are what we call RELATIVES; and the things so brought together, RELATED.

Thus, when the mind considers Caius as such a positive being, it takes nothing into that idea but what really exists in Caius; v.g.when I consider him as a man, I have nothing in my mind but the complex idea of the species, man.
So likewise, when I say Caius is a white man, I have nothing but the bare consideration of a man who hath that white colour.