It seems as evident to me, that they do reason, as that they have sense; but it is only in particular ideas, just as they received them from their senses.

They are the best of them tied up within those narrow bounds, and have not (as I think) the faculty to enlarge them by any kind of abstraction.12.Idiots and Madmen.
How far idiots are concerned in the want or weakness of any, or all of the foregoing faculties, an exact observation of their several ways of faultering would no doubt discover.

For those who either perceive but dully, or retain the ideas that come into their minds but ill, who cannot readily excite or compound them, will have little matter to think on.

Those who cannot distinguish, compare, and abstract, would hardly be able to understand and make use of language, or judge or reason to any tolerable degree; but only a little and imperfectly about things present, and very familiar to their senses.

And indeed any of the forementioned faculties, if wanting, or out of order, produce suitable defects in men's understandings and knowledge.
13.