at _A_ can
only be adequately conceived. For the idea of _A_ will necessarily be
adequate in God, both in so far as He has the idea of the human body and
in so far as He has the idea of its modifications, which involve the
nature of the human body, and partly also the nature of external bodies;
that is to say, this idea will necessarily be adequate in God in so far
as He constitutes the human mind, or in so far as He has ideas which are
in the human mind. The mind, therefore, necessarily perceives _A_
adequately, both in so far as it perceives itself or its own or any
external body; nor can _A_ be conceived in any other manner.

Hence it follows that some ideas or notions exist which are common to
all men, for all bodies agree in some things, which must be adequately,
that is to say, clearly and distinctly, perceived by all.

Hence it follows also that the more things the body has in common with
other bodies, the more things will the mind be adapted to perceive.

Those ideas are also adequate which follow in the mind from ideas which
are adequate in it. For when we say that an idea follows in the human
mind from ideas which are adequate in it, we do but say that in the
divine intellect itself an idea exists of which God is the cause, not in
so far as He is infinite, nor in so far as He is affected by the ideas
of a multitude of individual things, but in so far only as He
constitutes the essence of the human mind.

I have thus explained the origin of those notions which are called
common, and which are the foundations of our reasoning; but of some
axioms or notions other causes exist which it would be advantageous to
explain by our method, for we should thus be able to distinguish those
notions which are more useful than others, and those which are scarcely
of any use; those which are common; those which are clear and distinct
only to those persons who do not suffer from prejudice; and, finally,
those which are ill-founded. Moreover, it would be manifest whence these
notions which are called _second_, and consequently the axioms founded
upon them, have taken their origin, and other things, too, would be
explained which I have thought about at different times. Since, however,
I have set apart this subject for another treatise, and because I do not
wish to create disgust with excessive prolixity, I have determined to
pass by these matters here.

But not to omit anything which is necessary for us to know, I will
briefl