'whatsoever is white is white'; or whether the idea of being
in general be denied of not-Being, which is the only (if I may so
call it) idea different from it, as in this other proposition, 'it is
impossible for the same thing to be and not to be': or any idea of any
particular being be denied of another different from it, as 'a man is
not a horse'; 'red is not blue.' The difference of the ideas, as soon as
the terms are understood, makes the truth of the proposition presently
visible, and that with an equal certainty and easiness in the less as
well as the more general propositions; and all for the same reason, viz.
because the mind perceives, in any ideas that it has, the same idea to
be the same with itself; and two different ideas to be different, and
not the same; and this it is equally certain of, whether these ideas
be more or less general, abstract, and comprehensive.] It is not,
therefore, alone to these two general propositions--'whatsoever is, is';
and 'it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be'--that this
sort of self-evidence belongs by any peculiar right. The perception of
being, or not being, belongs no more to these vague ideas, signified by
the terms WHATSOEVER, and THING, than it does to any other ideas. [These
two general maxims, amounting to no more, in short, but this, that THE
SAME IS THE SAME, and THE SAME IS NOT DIFFERENT, are truths known in
more particular instances, as well as in those general maxims; and known
also in particular instances, before these general maxims are ever
thought on; and draw all their force from the discernment of the mind
employed about particular ideas. There is nothing more visible than
that] the mind, without the help of any proof, [or reflection on either
of these general propositions,] perceives so clearly, and knows so
certainly, that the idea of white is the idea of white, and not the idea
of blue; and that the idea of white, when it is in the mind, is there,
and is not absent; [that the consideration of these axioms can add
nothing to the evidence or certainty of its knowledge.] [Just so it is
(as every one may experiment in himself) in all the ideas a man has in
his mind: he knows each to be itself, and not to be another; and to be
in his mind, and not away when it is there, with a certainty that cannot
be greater; and, therefore, the truth of no general proposition can be
known with a greater certainty, nor add anything to this.] So that,
in respec