But where languages have failed to give correlative names, there the relation is not always so easily taken notice of. Hence it is, that many of those names, which, duly considered, do include evident relations, have been called external denominations. Some seemingly absolute terms contain relations. Relation different from the things related. Change of relation may be without any change in the things related.
Relation only betwixt two things.
Thus a triangle, though the parts thereof compared one to another be relative, yet the idea of the whole is a positive absolute idea. There must always be in relation two ideas or things, either in themselves really separate, or considered as distinct, and then a ground or occasion for their comparison. All things capable of relation. Our ideas of relations often clearer than of the subjects related. Secondly, This further may be considered concerning relation,that though it be not contained in the real existence of things, but something extraneous and superinduced, yet the ideas which relative words stand for are often clearer and more distinct than of those substances to which they do belong.