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The Improvement of Human Reason - Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan by Ibn Tufail
page 72 of 141 (51%)
§ 60. In like manner he enquir'd into all the Attributes of
Imperfection, and perceiv'd that the Maker of the World was free from
them all: And how was it possible for him to be otherwise, since the
Notion of _Imperfection_ is nothing but _mere Privation,_ or what
depends upon it? And how can he any way partake of _Privation_, who is
_very Essence_, and cannot but exist; who gives Being to every thing
that exists, and besides whom there is no Existence? But HE is the
Being, HE is the Absoluteness, HE the Beauty, HE the Glory, HE the
Power, HE the Knowledge, _HE is HE, and besides Him all things are
subject to perishing_[19].

§ 61. Thus far his Knowledge had brought him towards the end of the
fifth Septenary from his Birth, _viz._ when he was 35 Years old. And the
Consideration of this Supream Agent was then so rooted in his Heart,
that it diverted him from thinking upon any thing else: and he so far
forgot the Consideration of the Creatures, and the Enquiring into their
Natures, that as soon as e'er he cast his Eyes upon any thing of what
kind soever, he immediately perceiv'd in it the Footsteps of this Agent;
and in an instant his Thoughts were taken off from the Creature, and and
transferred to the Creator. So that he was inflam'd with the desire of
him, and his Heart was altogether withdrawn from thinking upon this
inferior World, which contains the Objects of Sense, and wholly taken up
with the Contemplation of the upper, Intellectual World.

§ 62. Having now attain'd to the Knowledge of this Supream Being, of
Permanent Existence, which has no Cause of his own Existence, but is the
Cause why all things else exist; he was desirous to know by what Means
he had attain'd this Knowledge, and by which of his Faculties he had
apprehended this Being. And first he examin'd all his Senses, _viz_. his
Hearing, Sight, Smelling, Tasting and Feeling, and perceiv'd that all
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