Aklın Kendini Temaşası ve Ruhun Yükselişi

Since the Intellect itself remains within itself, and is not inclined toward other things by either action or emotion, it rightly acts upon itself by understanding itself. The Soul, however, being affected in the opposite way, behaves differently regarding knowledge. In the entire order of knowledge, the senses hold the lowest step, but the Intellect holds the highest. Therefore, while the senses hold a straight line in knowing, only by touching other things, the Intellect rightly acts in a completely circular way, by contemplating itself deeply within its own being: reason, however, is mostly oblique. The forms of things that are in the mind are entirely essential. Those that are impressed upon the reason from eternity are "as if" essential; those which daily reflect from the mind into the reason are even less essential; finally, those that overflow into the reason from the imagination are not essential at all. The Soul, therefore, only truly knows itself when it fits the lower forms to the higher forms. Reason, therefore, has demonstrated that there must be something that understands itself properly and principally; however, it understands itself differently when it is in the soul than when it is more fundamentally in the mind. The Soul indeed knows itself as being "of another"; but the Mind knows that it is itself, and what kind of thing it is, and who it is, and this indeed by its own nature, namely, by being turned toward itself.