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The Improvement of Human Reason - Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan by Ibn Tufail
page 90 of 141 (63%)
that they should be free from all Properties of Body, of which,
_Multiplicity_ is one. Now the Divine Essence is not multiplied by these
Affirmative Attributes, but all of 'em together are one and the same
thing, _viz._ his real Essence. Then he began to consider how he might
imitate him in both these Kinds; and as for the Affirmative Attributes,
when he consider'd that they were nothing else but his real Essence, and
that by no means it could be said of them that they are _many_(because
Multiplicity is a Property of Body) and that the Knowledge of his own
Essence was not a Notion superadded to his Essence, but that his Essence
was the Knowledge of his Essence; and so _vice versa_, it appear'd to
him, that if he would know his Being, this Knowledge, by which he knew
his Being would not be a Notion superadded to his Being, but be the very
Being itself. And he perceived that his way to make himself like to him,
as to what concern'd his Affirmative Attributes, would be to know him
alone, abstracted wholly from all Properties of Body.

ยง 83. This he apply'd himself to; and as for the Negative Attributes,
they all consisted in Separation from Bodily Things. He began therefore
to strip himself of all Bodily Properties, which he had made some
Progress in before, during the time of the former Exercise, when he was
employ'd in the Imitation of the Heavenly Bodies; but there still
remained a great many Relicks, as his Circular Motion (Motion being one
of the more proper Attributes of Body), and his care of Animals and
Plants, Compassion upon them, and Industry in removing whatever
inconvenienc'd them. Now all these things belong to Corporeal
Attributes, for he could not see these things at first, but by Corporeal
Faculties; and he was oblig'd to make use of the same Faculties in
preserving them. Therefore he began to reject and remove all those
things from himself, as being in no wise consistent with that State
which he was now in search of. So he continu'd, confining himself to
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