nderstand either through itself
or through something which is conceived through itself; or, in other
words, ideas which are clear and distinct in us, or which are related to
the third kind of knowledge, cannot follow from mutilated and confused
ideas, which are related to the first kind of knowledge, but from
adequate ideas, that is to say, from the second and third kinds of
knowledge.

II

Eternity is the very essence of God, in so far as that essence involves
necessary existence. To conceive things therefore under the form of
eternity, is to conceive them in so far as they are conceived through
the essence of God as actually existing things, or in so far as through
the essence of God they involve existence. Therefore our mind, in so far
as it conceives itself and its body under the form of eternity,
necessarily has a knowledge of God, and knows that it is in God and is
conceived through Him.

We delight in whatever we understand by the third kind of knowledge, and
our delight is accompanied with the idea of God as its cause.

From the third kind of knowledge necessarily springs the intellectual
love of God. For from this kind of knowledge arises joy attended with
the idea of God as its cause, that is to say, the love of God, not in so
far as we imagine Him as present, but in so far as we understand that
He is eternal; and that is what I call the intellectual love of God.

He who clearly and distinctly understands himself and his emotions
rejoices, and his joy is attended with the idea of God, therefore he
loves God, and (by the same reasoning) loves Him better the better he
understands himself and his emotions.

This intellectual love necessarily follows from the nature of the mind,
in so far as it is considered, through the nature of God, as an eternal
truth. If there were anything, therefore, contrary to this love, it
would be contrary to the truth, and consequently whatever might be able
to negate this love would be able to make the true false, which, as is
self-evident, is absurd. There exists, therefore, nothing in Nature
contrary to this intellectual love, or which can negate it.

III

This love to God above everything else ought to occupy the mind, for
this love is connected with all the modifications of the body, by all of
which it is cherished.

The idea of God which is in us is adequate and perfect, and therefore in
so far as we contemplate God do we act and consequently no sorrow can
exist w