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3. For the mind cannot love itself, except also it know itself; for
how can it love what it does not know? Or if any body says that the
mind, from either general or special knowledge, believes itself of
such a character as it has by experience found others to be and
therefore loves itself, he speaks most foolishly. For whence does a
mind know another mind, if it does not know itself? For the mind does
not know other minds and not know itself, as the eye of the body sees
other eyes and does not see itself; for we see bodies through the eyes
of the body, because, unless we are looking into a mirror, we cannot
refract and reflect the rays into themselves which shine forth through
those eyes, and touch whatever we discern, a subject, indeed, which
is treated of most subtlely and obscurely, until it be clearly
demonstrated whether the fact be so, or whether it be not. But
whatever is the nature of the power by which we discern through the
eyes, certainly, whether it be rays or anything else, we cannot
discern with the eyes that power itself; but we inquire into it with
the mind, and if possible, understand even this with the mind. As
the mind, then, itself gathers the knowledge of corporeal things
through the senses of the body, so of incorporeal things through
itself. Therefore it knows itself also through itself, since it is
incorporeal; for if it does not know itself, it does not love itself.
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