That the will as well as the understanding is required for
judging.
I admit that the understanding is necessary for judging, there being
no room to suppose that we can judge of that which we in no way
apprehend; but the will also is required in order to our assenting
to what we have in any degree perceived. It is not necessary,
however, at least to form any judgment whatever, that we have an
entire and perfect apprehension of a thing; for we may assent to
many things of which we have only a very obscure and confused
knowledge.
XXXV. That the will is of greater extension than the understanding,
and is thus the source of our errors.
Further, the perception of the intellect extends only to the few
things that are presented to it, and is always very limited: the
will, on the other hand, may, in a certain sense, be said to be
infinite, because we observe nothing that can be the object of the
will of any other, even of the unlimited will of God, to which ours
cannot also extend, so that we easily carry it beyond the objects we
clearly perceive; and when we do this, it is not wonderful that we
happen to be deceived.
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