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De Trinitate

III.

[III 3 ] Mens enim amare se ipsam non potest nisi etiam noverit se. Nam quomodo amat quod nescit? Aut si quisquam dicit ex notitia generali vel speciali mentem credere se esse talem quales alias experta est et ideo amare semet ipsam, insipientissime loquitur. Unde enim mens aliquam mentem novit si se non novit? Neque enim ut oculus corporis videt alios oculos et se non videt, ita mens novit alias mentes et ignorat semet ipsam. Per oculos enim corporis corpora videmus quia radios, qui per eos emicant et quidquid cernimus tangunt refringere ac retorquere in ipsos non possumus nisi cum specula intuemur. Quod subtilissime obscurissimeque disseritur donec apertissime demonstretur vel ita se rem habere vel non ita. Sed quoquo modo se habeat vis qua per oculos cernimus, ipsam certe vim, sive sint radii sive aliud aliquid, oculis cernere non valemus; sed mente enim quaerimus, et si fieri potest etiam hoc mente comprehendimus. Mens ergo ipsa sicut corporearum rerum notitias per sensus corporis colligit sic incorporearum per semet ipsam. Ergo et se ipsam per se ipsam novit quoniam est incorporea. Nam si son se novit, non se amat.

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The Fifteen Books of Aurelius Augustinus, Bishop of Hippo, on the Trinity

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.