DESCARTES. 



38 



of the want of which I was conscious, and thus could 

 of myself have become infinite, eternal, immutable, 

 omniscient, all-powerful, and, in fine, have possessed 

 all the perfections which I could recognise in God. 

 For in order to know the nature of God, (whose 

 existence has been established by the preceding 

 reasonings,) as far as my own nature permitted, I 

 had only to consider in reference to all the proper 

 ties of which I found in my mind some idea, 

 whether their possession was a mark of perfection; 

 and I was assured that no one which indicated any 

 imperfection was in him, and that none of the rest 

 was wanting. Thus I perceived that doubt, incon 

 stancy, sadness, and such like, could not be found 

 in God, since I myself would have been happy to be 

 free from them. Besides, I had ideas of many 

 sensible and corporeal things; for although I might 

 suppose that I was dreaming, and that all which I 

 saw or imagined was false, I could not, neverthe 

 less, deny that the ideas were in reality in my 

 thoughts. But, because I had already very clearly 

 recognised in myself that the intelligent nature is. 

 distinct from the corporeal, and as I observed that 

 all composition is an evidence of dependency, and 

 that a state of dependency is manifestly a state of 

 imperfection, I therefore determined that it could 

 not be a perfection in God to be compounded of 

 these two natures, and that consequently he was not 

 so compounded; but that if there were anybodies 

 in the world, or even any intelligences, or other 

 natures that were not wholly perfect, their exist 

 ence depended on his power in such a way that 



