Chapter 3.—The Image of the
Trinity in the Mind of Man Who Knows Himself and Loves Himself. The
Mind Knows Itself Through Itself.
3. For the mind cannot love itself,
except also it know itself; for how can it love what it does not
know? Or if any body says that the mind, from either general or
special knowledge, believes itself of such a character as it has by
experience found others to be and therefore loves itself, he speaks
most foolishly. For whence does a mind know another mind, if it
does not know itself? For the mind does not know other minds and
not know itself, as the eye of the body sees other eyes and does
not see itself; for we see bodies through the eyes of the body,
because, unless we are looking into a mirror, we cannot refract and
reflect the rays into themselves which shine forth through those
eyes, and touch whatever we discern,—a subject, indeed, which is
treated of most subtlely and obscurely, until it be clearly
demonstrated whether the fact be so, or whether it be not. But
whatever is the nature of the power by which we discern through the
eyes, certainly, whether it be rays or anything else, we cannot
discern with the eyes that power itself; but we inquire into it
with the mind, and if possible, understand even this with the mind.
As the mind, then, itself gathers the knowledge of corporeal things
through the senses of the body, so of incorporeal things through
itself. Therefore it knows itself also through itself, since it is
incorporeal; for if it does not know itself, it does not love
itself.