AND ITS SELF-CONSERVATION. 217 



enable him to unfold the infinitely extended, infinitely 

 varied world of finitude and change. 



" Creation from nothing," then really means: Crea- 

 tion through the pure self-activity of the absolute First 

 Cause. And the First Cause, let us repeat, is the one 

 absolute energy, the very nature of which consists in its 

 complete, perpetually self-equal activity. So, also, its 

 activity is exerted solely and necessarily upon itself. Its 

 activity is absolute self -activity and self -receiving activity. 



Once more, then, the First Cause as absolute energy is 

 an eternal, self-realizing process, and Creation is but the 

 eternal self-realization of the Creator. The universe, or 

 cosmos, is nothing else than the self-externalization of 

 the great First Cause. Whence, that Cause is the truth 

 and substance of the world the one sole reality and 

 infinite actuality. 



