Windmills

Besides the intelligible and empirical character, we must mention a third which is different from therm both, the acquired character, which one only receives in life through contact with the world. Certainly one might suppose that, since the empirical character, as the phenomenon of the intelligible, is unalterable, and, like every natural phenomenon, is consistent with itself, man would always have to appear like himself and consistent, and would therefor have no need to acquire a character artificially by experience and reflection. But the case is otherwise, and although a man is always the same, yet he does not always understand himself, but often mistakes himself, until he has in some degree acquired real self-knowledge.