But this task is a laborious one, and
insensibly a certain lassitude leads me into the course of my
ordinary life. And just as a captive who in sleep enjoys an
imaginary liberty, when he begins to suspect that his liberty
is but a dream, fears to awaken, and conspires with these
agreeable illusions that the deception may be prolonged, so
insensibly of my own accord I fall back into my former
opinions, and I dread awakening from this slumber, lest the
laborious wakefulness which would follow the tranquillity of
this repose should have to be spent not in daylight, but in
the excessive darkness of the difficulties which have just
been discussed.
Meditation II
Of the Nature of the Human Mind; and that it is more easily
known than the Body.
The Meditation of yesterday filled my mind with so many
doubts that it is no longer in my power to forget them. And
yet I do not see in what manner I can resolve them; and, just
as if I had all of a sudden fallen into very deep water, I am
so disconcerted that I can neither make certain of setting my
feet on the bottom, nor can I swim and so support myself on
the surface.
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