But a sophism is concealed in this objection; for from
the fact that I cannot conceive a mountain without a valley,
it does not follow that there is any mountain or any valley in
existence, but only that the mountain and the valley, whether
they exist or do not exist, cannot in any way be separated one
from the other. While from the fact that I cannot conceive
God without existence, it follows that existence is
inseparable from Him, and hence that He really exists; not
that my thought can bring this to pass, or impose any
necessity on things, but, on the contrary, because the
necessity which lies in the thing itself, i.e. the necessity
of the existence of God determines me to think in this way.
For it is not within my power to think of God without
existence (that is of a supremely perfect Being devoid of a
supreme perfection) though it is in my power to imagine a
horse either with wings or without wings.
And we must not here object that it is in truth necessary
for me to assert that God exists after having presupposed that
He possesses every sort of perfection, since existence is one
of these, but that as a matter of fact my original supposition
was not necessary, just as it is not necessary to consider
that all quadrilateral figures can be inscribed in the circle;
for supposing I thought this, I should be constrained to admit
that the rhombus might be inscribed in the circle since it is
a quadrilateral figure, which, however, is manifestly false.
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