5p31sc.md (765B)
1 In proportion, therefore, as a man is more potent in 2 this kind of knowledge, he will be more completely conscious of 3 himself and of God; in other words, he will be more perfect and 4 blessed, as will appear more clearly in the sequel. But we must 5 here observe that, although we are already certain that the mind 6 is eternal, in so far as it conceives things under the form of 7 eternity, yet, in order that what we wish to show may be more 8 readily explained and better understood, we will consider the 9 mind itself, as though it had just begun to exist and to 10 understand things under the form of eternity, as indeed we have 11 done hitherto; this we may do without any danger of error, so 12 long as we are careful not to draw any conclusion, unless our 13 premisses are plain. 14 15