Excerpt from The Improvement of Human Reason, Exhibited in the Life of Hayy Ibn Yakzan: Written in Arabic Above 600 Years Ago Now, my Dear Friend, I do not here, when I speak of the Ideas of the Contemplative, mean what they learn from the study of Physics; nor by the notions of those who have attained to the union, what they learn from the study of Metaphysics (for these two ways of learning are vastly different, and must by no means be confounded). But what I mean by the Ideas of the Contemplative is what is attained by the study of Meta physics of which kind is that which Ibn Baja understood; and in the apprehension of these things this condition is necessarily required, viz. That it be manifestly and clearly true and then there is a middle sort of speculation, between that, and those who have attained to the union. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.