AND ITS SELF-CONSERVATION. 37 



in the universe as a whole. Otherwise the growth of the 

 individual as a power-to-think, must ultimately involve 

 a change in (and of) the total quantity of energy. 



"But thus, again, it becomes evident that wherever 

 the individual as a power-to-think can 'go/ there thought 

 is of necessity already present in realized form. The 

 ' where ' of thought proves to be just the total round of 

 the possible modes of thought itself ; which modes, to be 

 possible at all, must be already realized in the universe 

 as a whole. Whence it appears that the thought of the 

 individual can ' go ' to nature on this one condition 

 alone: that thought, in its universal character, is already 

 there present and realized in nature. 



" You would separate nature from thought as if 

 nature were something objective and thought a merely 

 subjective process. And this is right as far as it goes. 

 But it remains only a half-truth until supplemented by 

 the recognition of the fact that in the strict sense of 

 the term the only possible objects of thought are pre- 

 cisely thought itself, and the modes of thought in their 

 manifestations. 



"And, in truth, your maxim really conforms to this 

 view. For our examination of it has already shown sub- 

 stantially that the thought of the individual can go to 

 nature only on the condition that thought in at least 

 some of its essential modes is already there in nature. 

 But thought can only be 'in' nature by being fused 

 with nature. 



"I submit, therefore, that this is the real truth of 

 the case: Nature is the external and thought the internal; 

 internal, that is, in the sense that thought is the inner, 

 vital principle, which manifests, unfolds, utters or outers 



