Chapter 5

The human soul is a substantial feeling which expresses itself through the word myself

81. The soul, therefore, is expressed by the word myself. If, however, we are to know its primal, essential state, it is necessary to remember that the word expresses, in addition to the concept of the essence of the soul, different relationships with which the mind itself clothes this state through the operations it carries out on it.

Having removed the veils of these relationships, we have found in the depth of myself a feeling which, anterior to consciousness, constitutes properly speaking the pure substance of the soul. We now have to meditate on this feeling, defend its existence and describe its nature.