31. (1) When one being subsists by dependence on any other, and not
by self-dependence and withdrawal from any other, it could not turn
itself towards itself to know itself by separating from (the substrate)
by which it subsists. By withdrawing from its own existence it would
alter and perish. But when one being cognizes itself by withdrawal
from that to which it is united, when it grasps itself as independent
of that being, and succeeds in doing so without exposing itself
to destruction, it evidently does not derive its "being" or nature
from the being from which it can, without perishing, withdraw, to
face itself, and know itself independently. If sight, and in general
all sensation do not feel itself, nor perceive itself on separating
from the body, and do not subsist by itself; if, on the contrary,
intelligence think better by separating from the body, and can be
converted to itself without perishing, evidently sense-faculties are
actualized only by help of the body, while intelligence actualizes and
exists by itself, and not by the body.