Chapter XV.—In Memory There are
Also Images of Things Which are Absent.
23. But whether by images or no, who can well
affirm? For I name a stone, I name the sun, and the things
themselves are not present to my senses, but their images are near
to my memory. I name some pain of the body, yet it is not present
when there is no pain; yet if its image were not in my memory, I
should be ignorant what to say concerning it, nor in arguing be
able to distinguish it from pleasure. I name bodily health when
sound in body; the thing itself is indeed present with me, but
unless its image also were in my memory, I could by no means call
to mind what the sound of this name signified. Nor would sick
people know, when health was named, what was said, unless the same
image were retained by the power of memory, although the thing
itself were absent from the body. I name numbers whereby we
enumerate; and not their images, but they themselves are in my
memory. I name the image of the sun, and this, too, is in my
memory. For I do not recall the image of that image, but itself, for the image itself is present when I remember it. I name memory, and I know what I name. But where do I know it, except in the memory itself? Is it also present to itself by its image, and not by itself?