Q.E.D.
Note.- (1:4) This proposition is more clearly understood from II:[xvi]
Coroll. ii. (5) For imagination is an idea, which indicates rather the
present disposition of the human body than the nature of the external
body; not indeed distinctly, but confusedly; whence it comes to pass,
that the mind is said to err. (6) For instance, when we look at the sun,
we conceive that it is distant from us about two hundred feet; in this
judgment we err, so long as we are in ignorance of its true distance;
when its true distance is known, the error is removed, but not the
imagination; or, in other words, the idea of the sun, which only explains
tho nature of that luminary, in so far as the body is affected thereby:
wherefore, though we know the real distance, we shall still nevertheless
imagine the sun to be near us. (7) For, as we said in III:[xxxv] note,
we do not imagine the sun to be so near us, because we are ignorant of
its true distance, but because the mind conceives the magnitude of the
sun to the extent that the body is affected thereby. (1:8) Thus, when
eyes, we imagine the sun as if it were in the water, though we are aware
of its real position; and similarly other imaginations, wherein the mind
is deceived whether they indicate the natural disposition of the body,
or that its power of activity is increased or diminished, are not contrary
to the truth, and do not vanish at its presence.
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