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19. Are we, then, now to go upward, with whatever strength of
purpose we may, to that chiefest and highest essence, of which the
human mind is an inadequate image, yet an image? Or are these same
three things to be yet more distinctly made plain in the soul, by means
of those things which we receive from without, through the bodily
sense, wherein the knowledge of corporeal things is impressed upon us
in time? Since we found the mind itself to be such in its own memory,
and understanding, and will, that since it was understood always to
know and always to will itself. it was understood also at the same time
always to remember itself, always to understand and love itself,
although not always to think of itself as separate from those things
which are not itself; and hence its memory of itself, and
understanding of itself, are with difficult discerned in it. For in
this case, where these two things are very closely con-joined, and
one is not preceded by the other by any time at all, it looks as if
they were not two things, but one called by two names; and love itself
is not so plainly felt to exist when the sense of need does not disclose
it, since what is loved is always at hand. And hence these things may
be more lucidly set forth, even to men of duller minds, if such topics
are treated of as are brought within reach of the mind in time, and
happen to it in time; while it remembers what it did not remember
before, and sees what it did not see before, and loves what it did not
love before. But this discussion demands now another beginning, by
reason of the measure of the present book.
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