CHAPTER XXII. 



THE WORLD-ENERGY AS SPIRIT. 



WE have seen that the World-Energy is identical 

 with the First Cause. And the various phases 

 of cause are, therefore, involved in it. We are now 

 to inquire what further is implied in this conception. 

 And, first, we are to remember that our investiga- 

 tion thus far has brought us to recognize the World- 

 Energy as the absolute, self-sufficing totality of existence. 

 All its relations are necessarily self-relations. For there 

 is absolutely nothing beyond or outside of it to which 

 it could possibly be related. Thus, what we have now 

 to do, is to investigate the fundamental phases of this 

 round of self -relation which is necessarily involved in the 

 total World-Energy as the absolute First Cause. And 

 once more we are to follow the course of development 

 in the logical order of the unfolding of these phases of 

 self-realization, remembering that, for the World-Energy, 

 those phases are necessarily and absolutely co-existent; 

 any appearance of succession in time for it being inci- 

 dent wholly to the fact that we ourselves are under time- 

 conditions, and must, therefore, view the phases of the 

 World-Energy one after another. This we must do, 

 indeed, even in our examination of a piece of mechan- 

 ism or of art, though the total work is there before us 

 as a whole from the beginning of our study of its 



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