perfect circle can have no part of a straight line; that the centre
of a perfect circle cannot be nearer one side of the circumference
than the other. Men may, indeed, not think actually on these
truths: and it might even happen that there should be neither
universe nor any mind capable to reflect on these truths: but
nevertheless they are still constant and certain in themselves
although no mind should be acquainted with them; just as the rays of
the sun would not cease being real, although all men should be
blind, and no body have eyes to be sensible of their light. By
affirming that two and two make four, says St. Augustin, man is not
only certain that he speaks truth, but he cannot doubt that such a
proposition was ever equally true, and must be so eternally. These
ideas we carry within ourselves have no bounds, and cannot admit of
any. It cannot be said that what I have affirmed about the centre
of perfect circles is true only in relation to a certain number of
circles; for that proposition is true, through evident necessity,
with respect to all circles ad infinitum. These unbounded ideas can
never be changed, altered, impaired, or defaced in us; for they make
up the very essence of our reason. Whatever effort a man may make
in his own mind, yet it is impossible for him ever to entertain a
serious doubt about the truths which those ideas clearly represent
to us. For instance, I never can seriously call in question,
whether the whole is bigger than one of its parts; or whether the
centre of a perfect circle is equally distant from all the points of
the circumference. The idea of the infinite is in me like that of
numbers, lines, circles, a whole, and a part. The changing our
ideas would be, in effect, the annihilating reason itself. Let us
judge and make an estimate of our greatness by the immutable
infinite stamp within us, and which can never be defaced from our
minds. But lest such a real greatness should dazzle and betray us,