And what I here find to be most important is that I
discover in myself an infinitude of ideas of certain things
which cannot be esteemed as pure negations, although they may
possibly have no existence outside of my thought, and which
are not framed by me, although it is within my power either to
think or not to think them, but which possess natures which
are true and immutable. For example, when I imagine a
triangle, although there may nowhere in the world be such a
figure outside my thought, or ever have been, there is
nevertheless in this figure a certain determinate nature,
form, or essence, which is immutable and eternal, which I have
not invented, and which in no wise depends on my mind, as
appears from the fact that diverse properties of that triangle
can be demonstrated, viz. that its three angles are equal to
two right angles, that the greatest side is subtended by the
greatest angle, and the like, which now, whether I wish it or
do not wish it, I recognise very clearly as pertaining to it,
although I never thought of the matter at all when I imagined
a triangle for the first time, and which therefore cannot be
said to have been invented by me.
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