Full Idea
Whether others can abstract their ideas, they best can tell. For myself, I find I have a faculty of imagining, or representing to myself, only the idea of those particular things I have perceived, and of compounding and dividing them.
Gist of Idea
I can only combine particulars in imagination; I can't create 'abstract' ideas
Source
George Berkeley (The Principles of Human Knowledge [1710], 10)
Book Reference
Berkeley,George: 'The Principles of Human Knowledge etc.', ed/tr. Warnock,G.J. [Fontana 1962], p.49
A Reaction
He is admitting mixing experiences, but always particulars, never abstract. His examples are 'man' and 'motion'. Compare Aristotle Idea 9067. Berkeley is, I think, trapped in a false imagistic view of thought. My image of Plato blurs young and old.
Related Idea
Idea 9067 Many memories of the same item form a single experience [Aristotle]