AND ITS SELF-CONSERVATION. 229 



of thought progressively undergoing realization in and 

 through and for each individual man in time. Hence in 

 proportion as man is successful in his efforts to discover 

 the essential characteristics of the Thought of the World 

 he discovers at the same time and in the same fact the 

 true nature of his own thought. And the discovery con- 

 sists in this : That his own thought is in its essential or 

 true nature identical with the great world-system as* the 

 perfection of Thought. Both are of one and the same 

 ideal type, of one and the same nature, and indeed it is 

 inconceivable that they should be different. For, as 

 already indicated, to conceive them as different must be 

 to conceive the modes of activity of each, in order to 

 know them as different. But thus, in conceiving the 

 modes of activity of each, one must think in the modes of 

 each; and this would be to include in one's own thought 

 the modes of a consciousness assumed as different from 

 one's own. And yet this must be a contradiction in 

 terms, since whatever modes of consciousness I can really 

 include in my own thought are by that very fact already 

 proved to be modes of my own consciousness as well. 



Thus, then, the perpetual self-revelation of the world- 

 process is not merely a revelation of itself to itself, but 

 also a revelation of itself to all beings having power to 

 recognize that revelation. And the revelation in any 

 given case is real precisely in proportion to the degree 

 in which the power to comprehend the revelation is 

 unfolded on the part of the receiving mind. 



The whole universe, physical and spiritual, is there- 

 fore the eternally accomplished fact of Revelation, while 

 on his part man is ever progressively unfolding his 

 own power to comprehend the revelation. For this 



