For any monoidal category $\mathbb{C}$ there exists the "underlying" monoidal functor $\hom(I, -) \colon \mathbb{C} \rightarrow \mathbf{Set}$. As is the idea of a monoidal functor, it preserves structures defined by monoidal operations. Particularly, $\hom(I, -)$ lifts to the "underlying" 2-functor from the 2-category of $\mathbb{C}$-enriched categories to the 2-category of ordinary (that is: $\mathbf{Set}$-enriched) categories $U \colon \mathbb{C}$-$\mathbf{Cat} \rightarrow \mathbf{Cat}$. A monoid $X$ internal to $\mathbb{C}$ is precisely a $\mathbb{C}$-enriched category $1_X$ having a single object $1$ and $\hom(1, 1) = X$. From this perspective, the first construction corresponds to taking the underlying category of $1_X$. If $\mathbb{C}$ is closed and has equalisers, then something much stronger then proposition 2.6 should be true (i.e. proposition 2.6 should hold internally to $\mathbb{C}$). The monoid $1_X$ via Yoneda $y_{1_X} \colon 1_X \rightarrow \mathbb{C}^{1_X^{op}}$ embeds into the category of presheaves on $1_X$. Now the enriched Yoneda lemma says that $X$ is isomorphic to the object of natural transformations $\mathit{nat}(\hom(-, 1), \hom(-, 1))$, which, by the definition of a natural transformation, is a regular subobject of $[X, X] \in \mathbb{C}$. We should get the second construction by applying the underlying functor to $X \rightarrow [X, X]$. *** I will try to elaborate a bit more on the subject. Let us assume that $\mathbb{C}$ is symmetric monoidal closed and has equalisers. Then any monoid $X$ internal to $\mathbb{C}$ admits embedding $y_{1_X} \colon 1_X \rightarrow \mathbb{C}^{1_X^{op}}$. The object of natural transformations $$\mathit{nat}(\hom(-, 1), \hom(-, 1))$$ by definition is the equaliser of $l, r \colon [X, X] \rightarrow [X, [X, X]]$ in $\mathbb{C}$, where $l$ is the transposition of: $$\mu_\mathbb{C} \circ (\mathit{id}_{[X, X]} \otimes \nabla^*) \colon [X, X] \otimes X \rightarrow [X, X]$$ $r$ is the other transposition of: $$\mu_\mathbb{C} \circ (\nabla^* \otimes \mathit{id}_{[X, X]}) \colon X \otimes [X, X] \rightarrow [X, X]$$ $\nabla^* \colon X \rightarrow [X, X]$ is the transposition of the monoidal multiplication $X \otimes X \rightarrow X$, and $\mu_\mathbb{C} \colon [X, X] \otimes [X, X] \rightarrow [X, X]$ is the internalised composition from $\mathbb{C}$. The enriched Yoneda lemma says that $$\mathit{nat}(\hom(-, 1), \hom(-, 1)) \approx \hom(1, 1) = X$$ Therefore the "arrows part" of $hom(-, 1)$ --- $e \colon X \rightarrow [X, X]$ is the equaliser of $l, r \colon [X, X] \rightarrow [X, [X, X]]$. Furthermore, because $hom(-, 1)$ is a functor, it maps the composition in $1_X^{op}$ to the composition in $\mathbb{C}$, turning $e$ into a functor between internal monoids $E \colon 1_X \rightarrow 1_{[X, X]}$. The second construction is given by the application of the underlying functor $U$ to $E$: $$U(E) \colon U(1_X) \rightarrow U(1_{[X, X]})$$ One may perhaps use the weak version of the Yoneda lemma to construct $U(E)$ in case $\mathbb{C}$ is not monoidal closed with equalisers. However, there is also a more natural solution. Let us recall that if $\mathbb{C}$ is monoidal, then its category of presheaves $\mathbf{Set}^{\mathbb{C}^{op}}$ inherits the monoidal structure via the very special case of convolution: $$F \otimes_\mathbb{C} G = \int^{B, C} F(B) \times G(C) \times \hom(-, B \otimes C)$$ Moreover, Brian Day showed that $\otimes_\mathbb{C}$ makes $\mathbf{Set}^{\mathbb{C}^{op}}$ a monoidal (bi)closed category, with the Yoneda embedding $y_\mathbb{C} \colon \mathbb{C} \rightarrow \mathbf{Set}^{\mathbb{C}^{op}}$ preserving the structure (i.e. not only does $y_\mathbb{C}$ preserve tensors, but any existing linear exponents). This means that $y_\mathbb{C}$ rises to the 2-functor $Y \colon \mathbb{C}$-$\mathbf{Cat} \rightarrow \mathbf{Set}^{\mathbb{C}^{op}}$-$\mathbf{Cat}$. By Yoneda, the underlying functor $U \colon \mathbb{C}$-$\mathbf{Cat} \rightarrow \mathbf{Cat}$ factors through $Y$ followed by the underlying functor $V$ of $\mathbf{Set}^{\mathbb{C}^{op}}$-$\mathbf{Cat}$. Since the Yoneda functor $y_\mathbb{C}$ also preserves equalisers, every monoid $X$ in $\mathbb{C}$ has a representation as a submonoid of $y_\mathbb{C}(X)^{y_\mathbb{C}(X)}$ in $\mathbf{Set}^{\mathbb{C}^{op}}$, and $X$ is a submonoid of $[X, X] \in \mathbb{C}$ iff the linear exponent $[X, X]$ exists in $\mathbb{C}$. "The second construction" is: $$V(E) \colon U(1_X) = V(1_{y_\mathbb{C}(X)}) \rightarrow V(1_{[y_\mathbb{C}(X), y_\mathbb{C}(X)]})$$