Will it be said that I formerly held many things to be true
and certain which I have afterwards recognised to be false?
But I had not had any clear and distinct knowledge of these
things, and not as yet knowing the rule whereby I assure
myself of the truth, I had been impelled to give my assent
from reasons which I have since recognised to be less strong
than I had at the time imagined them to be. What further
objection can then be raised? That possibly I am dreaming (an
objection I myself made a little while ago), or that all the
thoughts which I now have are no more true than the phantasies
of my dreams? But even though I slept the case would be the
same, for all that is clearly present to my mind is absolutely
true.
And so I very clearly recognise that the certainty and
truth of all knowledge depends alone on the knowledge of the
true God, in so much that, before I knew Him, I could not have
a perfect knowledge of any other thing. And now that I know
Him I have the means of acquiring a perfect knowledge of an
infinitude of things, not only of those which relate to God
Himself and other intellectual matters, but also of those
which pertain to corporeal nature in so far as it is the
object of pure mathematics [which have no concern with whether
it exists or not].
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