Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 2.djvu/14

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IDENTITY of a thing, is its Samenefs, or that by which it is itfelf, and not any thing clfc. Our Ideas of Identity we owe to that Power which the Mind has of comparing the very Beings of Things, whereby con- iidering any thing as exifting at any certain Time and Place, and comparing it with itfelf as exifting at any other Time, &c. we accordingly pronounce it the lame or different. When we fee anything in any certain Time and Place, we are fure it is that very thing ', and can be no other, how like foever it may be in all other refpects : In regard we conceive it impoffible, that two things ot the fame kind, mould exift together in the fame Place, we conclude, that whatever exifts any where at the fame Time, excludes, all of the fame kind, and is there. itfclf alone. When therefore we demand, whether any thing be the fame or no, it refers always to fomething, that ex- ited at fuchaTime, in fuch a Place, which it was cer- tain, at that inftant, was the fame with itfelf, and no other. We have Ideas of three forts of Subftances. Ttrtf, of Gods j Secondly, of Finite Intelligences -, Thirdly, of Bo- dies. FirB, God being Eternal, Inalterable, and every where, concerning his Identity there can be no doubt. Secondly, Finite Spirits having had their determinate Place and lime of beginning to exift, the Relation to that Time and Place will always determine to each, its Identity, as long as it exifts. Thirdly, The fame will hold of every Particle of Matter to which no Addition or SubftracKon is made. Thefe three exclude not one another out of the fame Place, yet each exclude thofe of the fame kind, out of (he lame Place. The Identity and Diverfity of Modes and Relations are determined after the fame man- ner, thar Subltances are : only the Actions of Finite Be- ings, as Motion and Thought, confining in Succcffion, cannot exift in different Times and Places, as perma- nent Beings : For no Motion or Thought considered as at different Times, can be the fame, each Part thereof having a different beginning of Exigence. From whence it is plain, that Exigence itfelf is the Trincifmm Individnatio- nis, which determines a Being to a particular Time and Place incommunicable to two Beings of the fame kind. Thus, fuppofe an Atom exifting in a determined Time and Place, it is evident, that confider'd in any inftant, it is the fame with itfelf, and will be fo, as long as its Ex- igence continues. The fame may be faid of two, or more, or any Number of Particles, whilft they continue toge- ther. The Mafs will be the fame, however jumbled : but if one Atom be taken away, it is not the fame Mafs. In Vegetables, the Identity depends not on the fame Mafs, and is not applied to the fame Thing. The Reafon of this, is the difference between an animate Body, and Mafs of Matter ; this being only the Cohefion of Particles any how united j the other, fuch a Difuofition, and Organiza- tion of Parts, as is fit to receive and diftribute Nourish- ment, fo as to continue and frame the Wood, Bark, Leaves, fcjc, (of an Oak, for inftance) in which confifts the Vegetable Life. That therefore, which hath fuch an Organization of Parts, partaking of one common Life, continues to be the fame Plant, tho' that Life be commu- nicated to new Particles of Matter vitally united to the living Plant. The Cafe is not fo much different in Brutes, but that any one may hence fee what makes an Animal, and continues it the fame. The Identity of the fame Man likewifeconfilts in a Participation of the fame continued Life, in fucceeding Particles of Matter vitally united to the fame organized Body. To underftand Identity aright, we muff confider what Idea, the Word it is applied to, flandsfor: it being one thing, to be the fameSubftance ; another, the fame Man 5 and a third, the fame Per- fon. An Animal is a living organized Body : and the fame Animal is the fame continued Life communicated to different Particles of Matter, as they happen fucceffively to be united to that organized living Body; and our No- tion of Man, is but of a particular fort of Animal. Per- fon flandsfor an intelligent Being, that reafons, and re- flects, and can confider itfelf the Tame thing in different Times and Places 5 which it doth by that Confcioufnefs, that is infeparable from Thinking. By this every one is to himfelf, what he calls Self, without considering, whe- ther that Self be continued in the fame or diverfe Sub- flances. In this confifts Perfonal Identity, or the Samenefs of a Rational Being : and fo far as this Confcioufnefs ex- tends backward to any paft Adftion, or Thought, fo far reaches the Identity of that Perfon. It is the felf-fame now, it was then : And it is by the fame Self, with this prefent one, that now reflects on it, that that Action was done. Self is that confeious Thinking Thing, whatever Subftance, it matters not, which is confeious of PLafure and Pain, capable of Happinefs or Mifery ; and fo is con- cerned for itfelf, as far as that Confcioufnefs extends. That with which the Confcioufnefs of this prefent Think- ing Thing can join itfelf, makes the fame Perfon, and is one Self with it 5 and fo attributes to itfelf, and owns all

the Actions of that thing, as its own, as far as that Con- fcioufnefs reachcth. This Perfonal Identity is the Object. of Reward and Punifhment, being than by which every one is concerned for himfelf. If the Conftioulnefs went alono with the little Finger, when that was cut off, it would be the fame Self, that was juft before coneenAl for the whole Body. If the fame Socrates, waking, and ileepmg, did not partake of the fame Confcioulneis, they would not be the fame Perfon: Socrates waking could nor be in juftice accountable for what Socrates ilecping did j no more than one Twin, for what his Brother Twin did, becaufe their Outrides were fo like, that they could not be diitingumVd. But fuppofe I wholly lofe the Memory of fome Parts of my Life, beyond a roftibility of re- trieving them, fo that I /hall never be confeious of them again ; am I not again the fame Perfon that did thofe Aclions, tho 1 I have forgot them ? I anfwer, We muff here take notice what the word I is applied to, which in this Cafe is the Man only: And the fame Man being pre- fumed to be the fame Perfon, I is eafily here ftippoled to Hand alfo for the fame Perfon. But if it be pofliblc for the fame Man, to have diftincl: incommunicable Con- fcioufnefs at different times, it is paft doubt the fame Man would at different times make different Perfons. Which we fee is the Senfe of Mankind in the folemneff Declaration of their Opinions j Fluman Laws not puniffi- ing the Madman for the fober Man's Actions, nor the fober Man, for what the Madman did ; thereby making them two Perfons. Thus we fay in En.°lijh, Such an one is not himfelf, or is befides himfelf; in which Phrafes it is infinuated, that Self is changed, and the felf-fame Per- fon is no longer in that Man. But is not a Man, drunk or fober, the fame Perfon ? Why elfe is he punifhed for the fame Fact he commits when drunk, tho' he be never af- terwards conlcious of it ? Tuft as much the fame Perfon, as a Man that walks, and does other things in his Sleep, is the fame Perfon, and is as anfwerable for any Mifehief he mail do in it. Human Laws puni/h both with a Juftice fuirable to their way of Knowledge : Becaule, in thefe Cafes, they cannot diftinguifh certainly, what is real, and what is counterfeit j and fo the Ignorance in Drunkennefs or Sleep is not admitted as a Plea. ,-For tho' Punifhment be annexed to Perfonality, and Perfonality to Confciouf- nefs, and the Drunkard is not confeious perhaps of what he did ; yet Human Judicatures juftly punifh him, be- caufe the Fair, is proved againft him, but want of Con- fcioufnefs cannot be proved for him. But in the great Day, wherein the Secrets of all Hearts fhall be laid open, it may be reafonable to think no one ffiall be made to anfwer for what he knows nothing of, but ihall receive his Doom, his own Confcicnce acculing, or elfe excufing him. To conclude, Whatever Subftance begins to exift, it mull, during its Exillence, be the fame : Whatever Compofition of Subftances begin to exift, du- ring the Union of thofe Subilances, the Concrete mull: be the ftime. Whatfoever Mode begins to exift, during its Exiftence it is the fame : And fo if the Compofition be of diftincl Subftances, and different Modes, the fame Rule holds. Whence it appears, that the Difficulty or Obfcurity that has been about this matter, rather arifes from Names ill ufed, than from any Obfcurity in the things themfclves. For whatever makes the fpecifick Idea, to which the Name is applied, if that Idea be fteadily kept to, the Diifinftion of any thing into the fame and diverfe, will eafily be conceived.

IDEOT in the original Greek iJioJwr, fignifies a private Perfon who has no public Office. Among the Latins it is ufed for Illiterates, Imferitus 5 and in our Englife Law, for a Perfon non camfos menus, or a natural Fool. A Perfon that has Underftanding enough to meafure a Yard of Cloth, number %o rightly, tell the Da\s of the Week, &c. is not an Ideot in the Eye of the Law-

IDES, isaWord which was ufed by the Romans, in their Calendar, to diftinguifh the Days of the Momh by. They commonly fell out the 13th of every Month, ex- cept in the Months of March, May, July, an d Offober, for in thefe, the Ides were on the 1 5th of the Month. This word is faid to be derived from the Hetrtirian word Iduare, that is, to divide 5 becaufe the Month is, in a manner, equal- ly divided into two Parts by the Ides j and the JV<mer were perhaps fo called from N0710 Idus, the ninth of the Ides, becaufe they were in the room of the ninth of the Ides. Some others obferving, that there were three con- siderable Varieties in the Motion of the Moon ; the firft, when fhe is quite hid under the Beams of the Sun 5 the fecond at the firft Day of her appearing, when we fee her in an Evening, with her Horns proceeding out of his Rays j and the third when fhe is in her full Light: The common Opinion was, that from thence Ro- mulus took occafion to divide the Days of the Months 5 which he began always by the Calends, in the- time that the Moon, fttb Radiis Solis celarettir, was hid under the

Beams