"There are many other such Ideas of the Mind, of certain Wholes made up of several Corporeal Parts, which, though Sometimes Locally discontinued, yet are joyned together by Relations, and Habitudes to one another (founded in some Actions of them, as they are Cogitative Beings) and by Order all conspiring into one thing; which, though they are altogether imperceptible by Sense, and therefore were never stamped or impressed upon the Mind from the Objects without yet, notwithstanding, are not meer Figments or Beings of Reason, but Things of the Greatest Reality, founded in certain Actions of Thinking and Cogitative Beings; which are altogether imperceptible by Sense, and therefore could not possibly be outwardly stamped upon the Mind."
— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)
Metaphor
"There are many other such Ideas of the Mind, of certain Wholes made up of several Corporeal Parts, which, though Sometimes Locally discontinued, yet are joyned together by Relations, and Habitudes to one another (founded in some Actions of them, as they are Cogitative Beings) and by Order all conspiring into one thing; which, though they are altogether imperceptible by Sense, and therefore were never stamped or impressed upon the Mind from the Objects without yet, notwithstanding, are not meer Figments or Beings of Reason, but Things of the Greatest Reality, founded in certain Actions of Thinking and Cogitative Beings; which are altogether imperceptible by Sense, and therefore could not possibly be outwardly stamped upon the Mind."
Metaphor in Context
10. There are many other such Ideas of the Mind, of certain Wholes made up of several Corporeal Parts, which, though Sometimes Locally discontinued, yet are joyned together by Relations, and Habitudes to one another (founded in some Actions of them, as they are Cogitative Beings) and by Order all conspiring into one thing; which, though they are altogether imperceptible by Sense, and therefore were never stamped or impressed upon the Mind from the Objects without yet, notwithstanding, are not meer Figments or Beings of Reason, but Things of the Greatest Reality, founded in certain Actions of Thinking and Cogitative Beings; which are altogether imperceptible by Sense, and therefore could not possibly be outwardly stamped upon the Mind; as for Example, a Polity or Commonwealth, called an Artificial Man, which is a Company of many United together by Consent or Contract under one Government, to be regulated by some certain Laws as it were by one Will for the Good of the Whole; where, though the Eye may see the Particular Persons, (or at least their outsides) that are the respective Members thereof, yet it can neither see the Bond which unites them together, which is nothing but Relation, nor comprehend the Whole that is made up of them, that is, a Polity or Commonwealth, according to the Formal Nature of it, which is an Idea that proceeds meerly from the Unitive Power and Activity of the Mind it self.
(IV.ii.10, pp. 166-7)
