been_.
I knew then that I was a substance, whose whole essence or nature is,
but to _think_, and who to _be_, hath need of no place, nor depends on
any materiall thing. So that this _Me_, to wit, my Soul, by which I am
what I am, is wholly distinct from the Body, and more easie to be known
then _it_; and although _that_ were not, it would not therefore cease to
be what it is.

After this I considered in generall what is requisite in a Proposition
to make it true and certain: for since I had found out one which I knew
to be so, I thought I ought also to consider wherein that certainty
consisted: and having observed, That there is nothing at all in this, _I
think_, therefore _I am_, which assures me that I speak the truth,
except this, that I see most cleerly, That _to think_, one must have a
_being_; I judg'd that I might take for a generall rule, That those
things which we conceive cleerly and distinctly, are all true; and that
the onely difficulty is punctually to observe what those are which we
distinctly conceive.

In pursuance whereof, reflecting on what I doubted, and that
consequently my _being_ was not perfect; for I clearly perceived, that
it was a greater perfection to know, then to doubt, I advised in my
self to seek from whence I had learnt to think on something which was
more perfect then I; and I knew evidently that it must be of some nature
which was indeed more perfect. As for what concerns the thoughts I had
of divers other things without my self, as of heaven, earth, light,
heat, and a thousand more, I was not so much troubled to know whence
they came, for that I observed nothing in them which seemed to render
them superiour to me; I might beleeve, that if they were true, they were
dependancies from my nature, as far forth as it had any perfection; and
if they were not, I made no accompt of them; that is to say, That they
were in me, because I had something deficient. But it could not be the
same with the _Idea_ of a being more perfect then mine: For to esteem of
it as of nothing, was a thing manifestly impossible. And because there
is no lesse repugnancy that the more perfect should succeed from and
depend upon the less perfect, then for something to proceed from
nothing, I could no more hold it from my self: So as it followed, that
it must have bin put into me by a Nature which was truly more perfect
then _I_, and even which had in it all the perfections whereof I could
have an _Idea_; to wit, (to e