xxix.) is the understanding, through which alone we are said to act (III.

iii.); the part which we have shown to perish is the imagination (V.
xxi.), through which only we are said to be passive (III.

iii.
and general Def.

of the Emotions); therefore, the former, be it great or small, is more perfect than the latter.

Q.E.D.
Note .-- Such are the doctrines which I had purposed to set forth concerning the mind, in so far as it is regarded without relation to the body; whence, as also from I.xxi.and other places, it is plain that our mind, in so far as it understands, is an eternal mode of thinking, which is determined by another eternal mode of thinking, and this other by a third, and so on to infinity; so that all taken together at once constitute the eternal and infinite intellect of God.
PROP.XLI.