10. The reason that intelligence remains hidden is just because it
is not felt; only by the means of this feeling can this activity be
felt; but why should intelligence cease to act (merely because it
was not felt)? On the other hand, why could the soul not have turned
her activity towards intelligence before having felt or perceived
it? Since (for intelligence) thinking and existence are identical,
perception must have been preceded by some actualization. It seems
impossible for perception to arise except when thought reflects upon
itself, and when the principle whose activity constitutes the life of
the soul, so to speak, turns backwards, and reflects, as the image of
an object placed before a brilliant polished mirror reflects itself
therein. Likewise, if the mirror be placed opposite the object, there
is no more image; and if the mirror be withdrawn or badly adjusted,
there is no more image, though the luminous object continue to act.
Likewise, when that faculty of the soul which represents to us the
images of discursive reason and of intelligence is in a suitable
condition of calm, we get an intuition--that is, a somewhat sensual
perception thereof--with the prior knowledge of the activity of the
intelligence, and of discursive reason. When, however, this image
is troubled by an agitation in the mutual harmony of the organs,
the discursive reason, and the intelligence continue to act without
any image, and the thought does not reflect in the imagination.
Therefore we shall have to insist that thought is accompanied by an
image without, nevertheless, being one itself. While we are awake,
it often happens to us to perform praiseworthy things, to meditate
and to act, without being conscious of these operations at the moment
that we produce them. When for instance we read something, we are not
necessarily self-conscious that we are reading, especially if our
attention be fully centered on what we read. Neither is a brave man
who is performing a courageous deed, self-conscious of his bravery.
There are many other such cases. It would therefore seem that the
consciousness of any deed weakens its energy, and that when the action
is alone (without that consciousness) it is in a purer, livelier and
more vital condition. When virtuous men are in that condition (of
absence of self-consciousness), their life is more intense because it
concentrates in itself instead of mingling with feeling.
THE ONLY OBJECT OF THE VIRTUOUS WILL IS THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUL
TOWARDS HERSELF.
11. It has sometimes been said that a man in such a condition does
not really live. (If such be their honest opinion), they must be told
that he does live, even if they be incapable of understanding his
happiness and his life. If this seem to them incredible, they should
reflect whether their own admission that such a man lives and is
virtuous, does not imply that under those circumstances he is happy.
Neither should they begin by supposing that he is annihilated, only
later to consider whether he be happy. Neither should they confine
themselves to externalities after having admitted that he turns his
whole attention on things that he bears within himself; in short, not
to believe that the goal of his will inheres in external objects.
Indeed, such considering of external objects as the goal of the will of
the virtuous man, would be tantamount to a denial of the very essence
(being) of happiness; likewise, insisting that those are the objects he
desires. His wish would undoubtedly be that all men should be happy,
and that none of them should suffer any evil; but, nevertheless, he is
none the less happy when that does not happen. Other people, again,
would say that it was unreasonable for the virtuous man to form such
an (impossible) wish, since elimination of evils here below is out of
the question.[13] This, however, would constitute an admission of our
belief that the only goal of the virtuous man's will is the conversion
of the soul towards herself.[14]