OF THE UNITY OF THOUGHT. 649 



the distracting diversity of many things or many 

 thoughts. Now this synthesis, as it does not really 

 destroy the manifoldness of things as they present 

 themselves to our contemplating mind, is possible only 

 by an abstraction, t.e., in the region of the Idea. Thus 

 the first step we take is to form some idea which, more 

 than a single thing or observation, experience or thought, 

 represents the ensemble or " together " of things, the 

 unity of the underlying ground ; it is a first, maybe 

 a very elementary and primitive conception of what this 

 underlying reality is. As we repeat this process, how- 

 ever, we gain more and more elevated expressions or 

 ideas of the Absolute ; or, to express it in other words, 

 the idea which we form of the Absolute becomes fuller 

 and more comprehensive, approaching nearer and nearer 

 to its actual nature or essence. 



If we now combine this whole scheme in its formal, 

 as well as in its more substantial meaning, with the con- 

 viction expressed in an extreme form by Fichte, that 

 the Absolute reveals itself in the first conscious activity 

 of a thinking subject, we arrive at the view that the 

 actual unfolding of the truly Eeal or the Absolute is of 

 the nature of the thinking process which the human 

 mind is carrying on in itself : further, that the several 

 stages of logical thought are essentially of the same 

 nature as the several stages of the actual development 

 of reality — in fact, we look upon logic, i.e., the canons 

 and categories of human thought, as indicating the suc- 

 ceeding stages of the development of the world- ground 

 or the Divine Logos ; a conception which, since the 

 appearance of Neoplatonism in antiquity, has reasserted 



