(11) When the mind regards bodies in this fashion, we say that
it imagines. (12) I will here draw attention to the fact, in order to
indicate where error lies, that the imaginations of the mind, looked at in
themselves, do not contain error. (13) The mind does not err in the mere
act of imagining, but only in so far as it is regarded as being without
the idea,-which excludes the existence of such things as it imagines to be
present to it. (14) If the mind, while imagining non-existent things as
present to it, is at the same time conscious that they do not really exist,
this power of imagination must be set down to the efficacy of its nature,
and not to a fault, especially if this faculty of imagination depend solely
on its own nature - that is (I:[D.vii] ), if this faculty of imagination be
free.
Prop.[XVIII] If the human body has once been affected by two or
more bodies at the same time, when the mind afterwards
imagines any of them, it will straightway remember the
others also.
Proof.- (18:1) The mind ([xvii] Coroll.) imagines any given body, because
the human body is affected and disposed by the impressions from an external
body, in the same manner as it is affected when certain of its parts are
acted on by the said external body; but (by our hypothesis) the body was
then so disposed, that the mind imagined two bodies at once; therefore, it
will also in the second case imagine two bodies at once, and the mind, when
it imagines one, will straightway remember the other.
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