2p47sc.md (1990B)
1 Hence we see, that the infinite essence and the 2 eternity of God are known to all. Now as all things are in God, 3 and are conceived through God, we can from this knowledge infer 4 many things, which we may adequately know, and we may form that 5 third kind of knowledge of which we spoke in the note to II. xl., 6 and of the excellence and use of which we shall have occasion to 7 speak in Part V. Men have not so clear a knowledge of God as 8 they have of general notions, because they are unable to imagine 9 God as they do bodies, and also because they have associated the 10 name God with images of things that they are in the habit of 11 seeing, as indeed they can hardly avoid doing, being, as they 12 are, men, and continually affected by external bodies. Many 13 errors, in truth, can be traced to this head, namely, that we do 14 not apply names to things rightly. For instance, when a man says 15 that the lines drawn from the centre of a circle to its 16 circumference are not equal, he then, at all events, assuredly 17 attaches a meaning to the word circle different from that 18 assigned by mathematicians. So again, when men make mistakes in 19 calculation, they have one set of figures in their mind, and 20 another on the paper. If we could see into their minds, they do 21 not make a mistake; they seem to do so, because we think, that 22 they have the same numbers in their mind as they have on the 23 paper. If this were not so, we should not believe them to be in 24 error, any more than I thought that a man was in error, whom I 25 lately heard exclaiming that his entrance hall had flown into a 26 neighbour's hen, for his meaning seemed to me sufficiently clear. 27 Very many controversies have arisen from the fact, that men do 28 not rightly explain their meaning, or do not rightly interpret 29 the meaning of others. For, as a matter of fact, as they flatly 30 contradict themselves, they assume now one side, now another, of 31 the argument, so as to oppose the opinions, which they consider 32 mistaken and absurd in their opponents. 33 34