How far then mixed modes, which admit of the various combinations of different simple ideas, and their infinite modes, are from being few and scanty, we may easily imagine. So that, before we have done, we shall see that nobody need be afraid he shall not have scope and compass enough for his thoughts to range in, though they be, as I pretend, confined only to simple ideas, received from sensation or reflection, and their several combinations. Motion, thinking, and power have been most modified. It is worth our observing, which of all our simple ideas have been most modified, and had most mixed ideas made out of them, with names given to them. Thus, testiness is a disposition or aptness to be angry.
Several words seeming to signify action, signify but the effect.
Power being the source from whence all action proceeds, the substances wherein these powers are, when they exert this power into act, are called causes, and the substances which thereupon are produced, or the simple ideas which are introduced into any subject by the exerting of that power, are called effects. I say, I think we cannot conceive it to be any other but these two. And when a countryman says the cold freezes water, though the word freezing seems to import some action, yet truly it signifies nothing but the effect, viz. Mixed modes made also of other ideas than those of power and action. That would be to make a dictionary of the greatest part of the words made use of in divinity, ethics, law, and politics, and several other sciences.