so the abstract ideas of goodness and courage are still more imperfect
representations of the objects they were received from; for here we
abstract the material parts, and recollect only the qualities.

Thus we abstract so much from some of our complex ideas, that at length it
becomes difficult to determine of what perception they partake; and in many
instances our idea seems to be no other than of the sound or letters of the
word, that stands for the collective tribe, of which we are said to have an
abstracted idea, as noun, verb, chimaera, apparition.

6. Ideas have been divided into those of perception and those of
reflection, but as whatever is perceived must be external to the organ that
perceives it, all our ideas must originally be ideas of perception.

7. Others have divided our ideas into those of memory, and those of
imagination; they have said that a recollection of ideas in the order they
were received constitutes memory, and without that order imagination; but
all the ideas of imagination, excepting the few that are termed simple
ideas, are parts of trains or tribes in the order they were received; as if
I think of a sphinx, or a griffin, the fair face, bosom, wings, claws,
tail, are all complex ideas in the order they were received: and it behoves
the writers, who adhere to this definition, to determine, how small the
trains must be, that shall be called imagination; and how great those, that
shall be called memory.

Others have thought that the ideas of memory have a greater vivacity than
those of imagination: but the ideas of a person in sleep, or in a waking
reverie, where the trains connected with sensation are uninterrupted, are
more vivid and distinct than those of memory, so that they cannot be
distinguished by this criterion.

The very ingenious author of the Elements of Criticism has described what
he conceives to be a species of memory, and calls it ideal presence; but
the instances he produces are the reveries of sensation, and are therefore
in truth connections of the imagination, though they are recalled in the
order they were received.

The ideas connected by association are in common discourse attributed to
memory, as we talk of memorandum-rings, and tie a knot on our handkerchiefs
to bring something into our minds at a distance of time. And a school-boy,
who can repeat a thousand unmeaning lines in Lilly's Grammar, is said to
have a good memory. But these have been already shewn to belo