The mind, both in so far as it has clear and distinct ideas, and also in so far as it has confused ideas, endeavours to persist in its being for an indefinite period, and of this endeavour it is conscious.
Proof .-- The essence of the mind is constituted by adequate and inadequate ideas (III.

iii.), therefore (III.

vii.), both in so far as it possesses the former, and in so far as it possesses the latter, it endeavours to persist in its own being, and that for an indefinite time (III.

viii.).

Now as the mind (II.