chiefly occupied with things considered as existing. (3) I will,
therefore, consider these first - I mean cases where only the existence
of an object is feigned, and the thing thus feigned is understood, or
assumed to be understood. (4) For instance, I feign that Peter, whom
I know to have gone home, is gone to see me, [r] or something of that
kind. (5) With what is such an idea concerned? (6) It is concerned
with things possible, and not with things necessary or impossible.

[53] (1) I call a thing impossible when its existence would imply a
contradiction; necessary, when its non-existence would imply a
contradiction; possible, when neither its existence nor its
non-existence imply a contradiction, but when the necessity or
impossibility of its nature depends on causes unknown to us, while
we feign that it exists. (2) If the necessity or impossibility of
its existence depending on external causes were known to us, we
could not form any fictitious hypotheses about it;

[54] (1) Whence it follows that if there be a God, or omniscient
Being, such an one cannot form fictitious hypotheses. (2) For,
as regards ourselves, when I know that I exist, [s] I cannot
hypothesize that I exist or do not exist, any more than I can
hypothesize an elephant that can go through the eye of a needle;
nor when I know the nature of God, can I hypothesize that He
or does not exist. [t] (54:3) The same thing must be said of the
Chimaera, whereof the nature implies a contradiction. (4) From
these considerations, it is plain, as I have already stated, that
fiction cannot be concerned with eternal truths. [u]

[55] (1) But before proceeding further, I must remark, in passing,
that the difference between the essence of one thing and the essence