the comedy just cited. (83:7) Further, a thing is remembered more
easily in proportion to its intelligibility; therefore we cannot
help remember that which is extremely singular and sufficiently
intelligible.


[84] (1) Thus, then, we have distinguished between a true idea and
other perceptions, and shown that ideas fictitious, false, and the
rest, originate in the imagination - that is, in certain sensations
fortuitous (so to speak) and disconnected, arising not from the power
of the mind, but from external causes, according as the body,
sleeping or waking, receives various motions.
(2) But one may take any view one likes of the imagination so long
as one acknowledges that it is different from the understanding, and
that the soul is passive with regard to it. (3) The view taken is
immaterial, if we know that the imagination is something indefinite,
with regard to which the soul is passive, and that we can by some
means or other free ourselves therefrom with the help of the
understanding. (4) Let no one then be astonished that before proving
the existence of body, and other necessary things, I speak of
imagination of body, and of its composition. (5) The view taken is,
I repeat, immaterial, so long as we know that imagination is something
indefinite, &c.

[85] (1) As regards as a true idea, we have shown that it is simple
or compounded of simple ideas; that it shows how and why something
is or has been made; and that its subjective effects in the soul
correspond to the actual reality of its object. (2) This conclusion
is identical with the saying of the ancients, that true proceeds
from cause to effect; though the ancients, so far as I know,