2p7csc.md (2018B)
1 Before going any further, I wish to recall to mind what 2 has been pointed out above–namely, that whatsoever can be 3 perceived by the infinite intellect as constituting the essence 4 of substance, belongs altogether only to one substance: 5 consequently, substance thinking and substance extended are one 6 and the same substance, comprehended now through one attribute, 7 now through the other. So, also, a mode of extension and the 8 idea of that mode are one and the same thing, though expressed in 9 two ways. This truth seems to have been dimly recognized by 10 those Jews who maintained that God, God's intellect, and the 11 things understood by God are identical. For instance, a circle 12 existing in nature, and the idea of a circle existing, which is 13 also in God, are one and the same thing displayed through 14 different attributes. Thus, whether we conceive nature under the 15 attribute of extension, or under the attribute of thought, or 16 under any other attribute, we shall find the same order, or one 17 and the same chain of causes–that is, the same things following 18 in either case. 19 20 I said that God is the cause of an idea–for instance, of the 21 idea of a circle,–in so far as he is a thinking thing; and of a 22 circle, in so far as he is an extended thing, simply because the 23 actual being of the idea of a circle can only be perceived as a 24 proximate cause through another mode of thinking, and that again 25 through another, and so on to infinity; so that, so long as we 26 consider things as modes of thinking, we must explain the order 27 of the whole of nature, or the whole chain of causes, through the 28 attribute of thought only. And, in so far as we consider things 29 as modes of extension, we must explain the order of the whole of 30 nature through the attributes of extension only; and so on, in 31 the case of the other attributes. Wherefore of things as they 32 are in themselves God is really the cause, inasmuch as he 33 consists of infinite attributes. I cannot for the present 34 explain my meaning more clearly. 35 36