Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body
Descartes · en
There are many Other Things Also which _Nature_ seems to teach Me, but
_Really_ I am not taught by It, but have gotten them by an _ill use_ of
Passing my Judgement _Inconsiderately_, and from hence it is that these
things happen often to be _false_; as that all _space_ is _Empty_, in
which I find _nothing_ that _works_ upon my _Senses_; That in a _hot
Body_ there is something _like_ the _Idea_ of _Heat_ which is in me; That
in a _White_ or _Green_ Body there is the same _Whiteness_ or _Greenness_
which I _perceive_; And the same _Taste_ in a _bitter_ or _sweet_ Thing,
_&c._ That _Stars_, _Castles_, and Other _Remote_ Bodies are of the same
_Bigness_ and _Shape_, as they are _Represented_ to my _senses_: and
such like. But that I may not admit of any Thing in this very matter,
which I cannot _Distinctly_ perceive, it behoves me here to determine
more _Accurately_ What I mean when I say, _That I am taught a Thing by
Nature_.
Here I take _Nature_ more _strictly_, then for the _Complication_ of all
those Things which are Given me by _God_; For in this _Complication_
there are many things contain’d which relate to the _Mind alone_, as,
That I perceive What is _done_ cannot be _not Done_, and all Other things
which are known by the _Light_ of _Nature_, but of these I speak not at
present. There are also many Other Things which belong _only_ to the
_Body_, as, That it _tends Downwards_ and such like, of these also I
treat not at Present. But I speak of those Things only which _God_ hath
bestowed upon me as I am _Compounded_ of a _Mind_ and _Body together_,
and not _differently Consider’d_. ’Tis _Nature_ therefore thus taken that
teaches me to _avoid troublesome Objects_, and _seek_ after _pleasing
Ones_; but it appears not that this _Nature_ teaches us to conclude any
thing of these Perceptions of our _senses_, before that we make by our
_Understanding_ a diligent examination of _outward Objects_; for to
Enquire into the _Truth_ of Things belongs not to the _Whole Compositum_
of a Man as he Consists of _Mind_ and _Body_, but to the _Mind alone_.