Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/301

Stu. Yes : into possible, probable and positive.
Prof. Define these several kinds of salt-boxes.
Stu. A possible salt-box is a salt-box yet unsold in the hands of the joiner.
Prof. Why so?
Stu. Because it hath never yet become a salt-box in fact, having never had any salt in it ; and it may possibly be applied to some other use.
Prof. Very true : — for a salt- box which never had, hath not now, and perhaps never may have, any salt in it, can only be termed a possible salt-box. What is a probable salt-box?
Stu. It is a salt-box in the hand of one going to a shop to buy salt, and who hath six-pence in his pocket to pay the grocer : and a positive salt-box is one which hath actually and bona fide got salt in it.
Prof.Very good : — but is there no instance of a positive salt-box which hath no salt in it?
Stu. I know of none.
Prof. Yes : there is one mentioned by some authors : it is where a box hath by long use been so impregnated with salt, that although all the salt hath been long since emptied out, it may yet be called a salt-box, with the same propriety that we say a salt herring, salt beef, &c. And in this sense any box that may have accidentally, or otherwise, been long steeped in brine, may be termed positively a salt-box, although never designed for the purpose of keeping salt. But tell me, what other division of salt-boxes do you recollect?
Stu. They are further divided into substantive and pendant : a substantive salt-box is that which stands by itself on the table or dresser ; and a pendant is that which hangs upon a nail against the wall.
Prof. What is the idea of a salt-box?
Stu. It is that image which the mind conceives of a salt-box, when no salt-box is present.
Prof. What is the abstract idea of a salt-box?
Stu. It is the idea of a salt-box, abstracted from the idea of a box, or of salt, or of a salt-box, or of a box of salt.
PROF. Very right : — and by these means you acquire a most perfect knowledge of a salt-box : but tell me, is the idea of a salt-box a salt idea?
Stu. Not unless the ideal box hath ideal salt in it.
Prof. True : — and therefore an abstract idea cannot be either salt