The names of such things as affect us, that is, which please and displease us, because all men be not alike affected with the same thing, nor the same man at all times, are in the common discourses of men of _inconstant_ signification. For seeing all names are imposed to signify our conceptions, and all our affections are but conceptions, when we conceive the same things differently, we can hardly avoid different naming of them. For though the nature of that we conceive, be the same; yet the diversity of our reception of it, in respect of different constitutions of body, and prejudices of opinion, gives every thing a tincture of our different passions. And therefore in reasoning a man must take heed of words; which besides the signification of what we imagine of their nature, have a signification also of the nature, disposition, and interest of the speaker; such as are the names of virtues and vices; for one man calleth _wisdom_, what another calleth _fear_; and one _cruelty_, what another _justice_; one _prodigality_, what another _magnanimity_; and one _gravity_, what another _stupidity_, &c. And therefore such names can never be true grounds of any ratiocination. No more can metaphors, and tropes of speech; but these are less dangerous, because they profess their inconstancy; which the other do not. ------- CHAPTER V. OF REASON AND SCIENCE. [Sidenote: Reason, what it is.] When a man _reasoneth_, he does nothing else but conceive a sum total, from _addition_ of parcels; or conceive a remainder, from _subtraction_ of one sum from another; which, if it be done by words, is conceiving of the consequence of the names of all the parts, to the name of the whole; or from the names of the whole and one part, to the name of the other part. And though in some things, as in numbers, besides adding and subtracting, men name other operations, as _multiplying_ and _dividing_, yet they are the same; for multiplication, is but adding together of things equal; and division, but subtracting of one thing, as often as we can. These operations are not incident to numbers only, but to all manner of things that can be added together, and taken one out of another. For as arithmeticians teach to add and subtract in _numbers_; so the geometricians teach the same in _lines_, _figures_, solid and superficial, _angles_, _proportions_, _times_, degrees of _swiftness_, _force_, _power_, and the like; the logicians teach the same in _consequences of words_; adding together two _names_ to make an _affirmation_, and two _affirmations_ to make a _syllogism_; and _many syllogisms_ to make a _demonstration_; and from the _sum_, or _conclusion_ of a _syllogism_, they subtract one _proposition_ to find the other. Writers of politics add together _pactions_ to find men’s _duties_; and lawyers, _laws_ and _facts_, to find what is _right_ and _wrong_ in the actions of private men.