We must then grant that
I could not even understand through the imagination what this
piece of wax is, and that it is my mind12 alone which
perceives it. I say this piece of wax in particular, for as
to wax in general it is yet clearer. But what is this piece
of wax which cannot be understood excepting by the
[understanding or] mind? It is certainly the same that I see,
touch, imagine, and finally it is the same which I have always
believed it to be from the beginning. But what must
particularly be observed is that its perception is neither an
act of vision, nor of touch, nor of imagination, and has never
been such although it may have appeared formerly to be so, but
only an intuition13 of the mind, which may be imperfect and
confused as it was formerly, or clear and distinct as it is at
present, according as my attention is more or less directed to
the elements which are found in it, and of which it is
composed.
Yet in the meantime I am greatly astonished when I
consider [the great feebleness of mind] and its proneness to
fall [insensibly] into error; for although without giving
expression to my thought I consider all this in my own mind,
words often impede me and I am almost deceived by the terms of
ordinary language.
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