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23. But whether by images or no, who can well affirm? For I name
a stone, I name the sun, and the things themselves are not present to
my senses, but their images are near to my memory. I name some pain
of the body, yet it is not present when there is no pain; yet if its
image were not in my memory, I should be Ignorant what to say
concerning it, nor in arguing be able to distinguish it from pleasure.
I name bodily health when sound in body; the thing itself is indeed
present with me, but unless its image also were in my memory, I could
by no means call to mind what the sound of this name signified. Nor
would sick people know, when health was named, what was said, unless
the same image were retained by the power of memory, although the thing
itself were absent from the body. I name numbers whereby we
enumerate; and not their images, but they themselves are in my
memory. I name the image of the sun, and this, too, is in my
memory. For I do not recall the image of that image, but itself,
for the image itself is present when I remember it. I name memory,
and I know what I name. But where do I know it, except in the
memory itself? Is it also present to itself by its image, and not by
itself?
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