E3P7D
Demonstration — Part III
Latin
Ex data cujuscunque rei essentia quædam necessario sequuntur (per propositionem 36 partis I) nec res aliud possunt quam id quod ex determinata earum natura necessario sequitur (per propositionem 29 partis I); quare cujuscunque rei potentia sive conatus quo ipsa vel sola vel cum aliis quidquam agit vel agere conatur hoc est (per propositionem 6 hujus) potentia sive conatus quo in suo esse perseverare conatur, nihil est præter ipsius rei datam sive actualem essentiam. Q.E.D.
English (Elwes 1883)
From the given essence of any thing certain consequences necessarily follow (I. xxxvi.), nor have things any power save such as necessarily follows from their nature as determined (I. xxix.); wherefore the power of any given thing, or the endeavour whereby, either alone or with other things, it acts, or endeavours to act, that is (III. vi.), the power or endeavour, wherewith it endeavours to persist in its own being, is nothing else but the given or actual essence of the thing in question. Q.E.D.
Modern English
From the given essence of any thing certain consequences necessarily follow (E1P36), and things can do nothing other than what follows necessarily from their determinate nature (E1P29). Therefore the power of any thing — the *conatus* by which it acts or strives to act, whether alone or together with other things, that is (E3P6), the power or *conatus* by which it strives to persist in its being — is nothing other than the given, or actual, essence of that thing. Q.E.D.