We may thus readily conceive the power which clear and distinct knowledge,
and especially that third kind of knowledge (II:xlvii.Note), founded on the
actual knowledge of God, possesses over the emotions: if it does not
absolutely destroy them, in so far as they are passions (V:iii. and
V:iv.Note); at any rate, it causes them to occupy a very small part of the
mind (V:xiv.). Further, it begets a love towards a thing immutable and
eternal (V:xv.), whereof we may really enter into possession (II:xlv.);
neither can it be defiled with those faults which are inherent in ordinary
love; but it may grow from strength to strength, and may engross the greater
part of the mind, and deeply penetrate it. And now I have finished with all
that concerns this present life: for, as I said in the beginning of this
note, I have briefly described all the remedies against the emotions. And
this everyone may readily have seen for himself, if he has attended to
what is advanced in the present note, and also to the definitions of the
mind and its emotions, and, lastly, to Propositions III:i. and III:iii. It
is now, therefore, time to pass on to those matters, which appertain to the
duration of the mind, without relation to the body.
Prop. XXI. The mind can only imagine anything,
or remember what is past, while the body endures.
Proof.- The mind does not express the actual existence of its body, nor does
it imagine the modifications of the body as actual, except while the body
endures (II:viii.Coroll.); and, consequently (II:xxvi.), it does not imagine
any body as actually existing, except while its own body endures. Thus it
cannot imagine anything (for definition of Imagination, see II:xvii.Note),
or remember things past, except while the body endures (see definition of
Memory, II:xviii.Note). Q.E.D.
Prop. XXII. Nevertheless in God there is necessarily an idea,
which expresses the essence of this or that human body under
the form of eternity.
Proof.- God is the cause, not only of the existence of this or that human
body, but also of its essence (I:xxv.). This essence, therefore, must
necessarily be conceived through the very essence of God (I:Ax.iv.), and be
thus conceived by a certain eternal necessity (I:xvi.); and this conception.
must necessarily exist in God (II:iii.). Q.E.D.
Prop. XXIII. The human mind cannot be absolutely
destroyed with the body, but there remains of it
something which is eternal.
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