nt being, whose whole endeavors are directed toward deceivingme ? Can I affirm that I possess any one of all those attributes of which I have lately spoken asbelonging to the nature of body ? After attentively considering them in my own mind, I find none ofthem that can properly be said to belong to myself. To recount them were idle and tedious. Let uspass, then, to the attributes of the soul. The first mentioned were the powers of nutrition and walking;but, if it be true that I have no body, it is true likewise that I am capable neither of walking nor of beingnourished. Perception is another attribute of the soul; but perception too is impossible without thebody; besides, I have frequently, during sleep, believed that I perceived objects which I afterwardobserved I did not in reality perceive. Thinking is another attribute of the soul; and here I discover whatproperly belongs to myself. This alone is inseparable from me. I am--I exist: this is certain; but howoften? As often as I think; for perhaps it would even happen, if I should wholly cease to think, that Ishould at the same time altogether cease to be. I now admit nothing that is not necessarily true. I amtherefore, precisely speaking, only a thinking thing, that is, a mind (mens sive animus), understanding,or reason, terms whose signification was before unknown to me. I am, however, a real thing, and reallyexistent; but what thing? The answer was, a thinking thing. [ L][ F]7. The question now arises, am I aught besides ? I will stimulate my imagination with a view to discoverwhether I am not still something more than a thinking being. Now it is plain I am not the assemblage ofmembers called the human body; I am not a thin and penetrating air diffused through all thesemembers, or wind, or flame, or vapor, or breath, or any of all the things I can imagine; for I supposedthat all these were not, and, without changing the supposition, I find that I still feel assured of myexistence. ...
