1. Sensations are not affections,[25] but actualizations, and
judgments, relative to passions. The affections occur in what is other
(than the soul); that is, in the organized body, and the judgment
in the soul. For if the judgment were an affection, it would itself
presuppose another judgment, and so on to infinity.[26] Though
accepting this statement, we must, nevertheless, examine whether
the judgment itself, as such, in nowise participates in the nature
of its object; for if it receive the impression thereof,[27] it is
passive. Besides, the "images derived from the senses"--to use the
popular language--are formed in a manner entirely different from what
is generally believed. They are in the same case as the intellectual
conceptions, which are actualizations, and through which, without being
affected, we know objects. In general, neither our reason nor our will
permit us, in any way, to attribute to the soul modifications and
changes such as the heating or cooling of bodies. Further, we have to
consider whether that part of the soul, that is called the passive (or
affective, or irrational), must also be be considered as unalterable,
or as being affectible. But we will take up this question later; we
must begin by solving our earlier problems.