Benedict de Spinoza, THE ETHICS
Page: 12

adequately or distinctly, unless he first has adequate knowledge
of the nature of our body. The propositions we have advanced
hitherto have been entirely general, applying not more to men
than to other individual things, all of which, though in
different degrees, are animated (animata). For of everything
there is necessarily an idea in God, of which God is the cause,
in the same way as there is an idea of the human body; thus
whatever we have asserted of the idea of the human body must
necessarily also be asserted of the idea of everything else.
Still, on the other hand, we cannot deny that ideas, like
objects, differ one from the other, one being more excellent than
another and containing more reality, just as the object of one
idea is more excellent than the object of another idea, and
contains more reality.

Wherefore, in order to determine, wherein the human mind differs
from other things, and wherein it surpasses them, it is
necessary for us to know the nature of its object, that is, of
the human body. What this nature is, I am not able here to
explain, nor is it necessary for the proof of what I advance,
that I should do so. I will only say generally, that in
proportion as any given body is more fitted than others for doing
many actions or receiving many impressions at once, so also is
the mind, of which it is the object, more fitted than others for
forming many simultaneous perceptions; and the more the actions
of the body depend on itself alone, and the fewer other bodies
concur with it in action, the more fitted is the mind of which
it is the object for distinct comprehension. We may thus
recognize the superiority of one mind over others, and may
further see the cause, why we have only a very confused
knowledge of our body, and also many kindred questions, which I
will, in the following propositions, deduce from what has been
advanced. Wherefore I have thought it worth while to explain
and prove more strictly my present statements. In order to do
so, I must premise a few propositions concerning the nature of
bodies.

---Axiom I. All bodies are either in motion or at rest.