Benedict de Spinoza, THE ETHICS
Page: 39

whereby each particular thing perseveres in existing follows from
the eternal necessity of God's nature (cf. I. xxiv. Cor.).

XLVI. The knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God
which every idea involves is adequate and perfect.

>>>>>Proof--The proof of the last proposition is universal; and
whether a thing be considered as a part or a whole, the idea
thereof, whether of the whole or of a part (by the last Prop.),
will involve God's eternal and infinite essence. Wherefore,
that, which gives knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence
of God, is common to all, and is equally in the part and in the
whole; therefore (II. xxxviii.) this knowledge will be adequate.
Q.E.D.

XLVII. The human mind has an adequate knowledge of the eternal
and infinite essence of God.

>>>>>Proof--The human mind has ideas (II. xxii.), from which (II.
xxiii.) it perceives itself and its own body (II. xix.) and
external bodies (II. xvi. Cor. i. and II. xvii.) as actually
existing; therefore (II. xlv. and xlvi.) it has an adequate
knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God. Q.E.D.

*****Note--Hence we see, that the infinite essence and the
eternity of God are known to all. Now as all things are in God,
and are conceived through God, we can from this knowledge infer
many things, which we may adequately know, and we may form that
third kind of knowledge of which we spoke in the note to II.
xl., and of the excellence and use of which we shall have
occasion to speak in Part V. Men have not so clear a knowledge
of God as they have of general notions, because they are unable
to imagine God as they do bodies, and also because they have
associated the name God with images of things that they are in
the habit of seeing, as indeed they can hardly avoid doing,
being, as they are, men, and continually affected by external
bodies. Many errors, in truth, can be traced to this head,
namely, that we do not apply names to things rightly. For
instance, when a man says that the lines drawn from the centre
of a circle to its circumference are not equal, he then, at all
events, assuredly attaches a meaning to the word circle different