A thing is known in itself when it is known by the proper species adequate to the knowable object; as when the eye sees a man through the image of a man.
 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (1274). copy citation

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Author Thomas Aquinas
Source Summa Theologica
Topic species eyes
Date 1274
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17611/pg17611-images.html

Context

“for everything which is in another, is in it according to the mode of that in which it is. Now in order to know how God knows things other than Himself, we must consider that a thing is known in two ways: in itself, and in another. A thing is known in itself when it is known by the proper species adequate to the knowable object; as when the eye sees a man through the image of a man. A thing is seen in another through the image of that which contains it; as when a part is seen in the whole by the image of the whole; or when a man is seen in a mirror by the image in the mirror, or by any other mode by which one thing is seen in another.” source