it to my
body? This soul of mine is not an infinite being; it has not been
always, and it thinks within certain bounds. Now, again, who makes
it know bodies so different from it? Who gives it so great a
command over a certain body; and who gives reciprocally to that body
so great a command over the soul? Moreover, which way do I know
whether this thinking soul is really one, or whether it has parts?
I do not see this soul. Now, will anybody say that it is in so
invisible, and so impenetrable, a thing that I clearly see what
unity is? I am so far from learning by my soul what the being One
is, that, on the contrary, it is by the clear idea I have already of
unity that I examine whether my soul be one or divisible.

Add to this, that I have within me a clear idea of a perfect unity,
which is far above that I may find in my soul. The latter is often
conscious that she is divided between two contrary opinions,
inclinations, and habits. Now, does not this division, which I find
within myself, show and denote a kind of multiplicity and
composition of parts? Besides, the soul has, at least, a successive
composition of thoughts, one of which is most different and distinct
from another. I conceive an unity infinitely more One, if I may so
speak. I conceive a Being who never changes His thoughts, who
always thinks all things at once, and in which no composition, even
successive, can be found. Undoubtedly it is the idea of the perfect
and supreme unity that makes me so inquisitive after some unity in
spirits, and even in bodies. This idea, ever present within me, is
innate or inborn with me; it is the perfect model by which I seek
everywhere some imperfect copy of the unity. This idea of what is
one, simple, and indivisible by excellence can be no other than the
idea of God. I, therefore, know God with such clearness and
evidence, that it is by knowing Him I seek in all creatures, and in
myself, some image and likeness of His unity. The bodies have, as
it were, some mark or print of that unity, which still flies away in
the division of its parts; and the spirits have a greater likeness
of it, although they have a successive composition of thoughts.

SECT. LXIII. Dependence and Independence of Man. His Dependence
Proves the Existence of his Creator.

But here is another mystery which I carry within me, and which makes
me incomprehensible to my self, viz.: that on the one hand I am
free, and on the other