XIV PRE FA CE 



by final causation, — that is, simply by being the 

 impersonated Ideal of every mind. 



IV. The members of this Eternal Republic have 

 no origin but their purely logical one of reference 

 to each other, including thus their primary reference 

 to God. That is, in the literal sense of the word, 

 they have no origin at all — no source in tune what- 

 ever. There is nothing at all, prior to them, out of 

 which their being arises; they are not "things" in 

 the chain of eiificient causation. They simply are, 

 and together constitute the eternal order. 



V. Still, they exist only in and through their 

 mutually thought correlation, their eternal " City," 

 and out of it would be non-existent. But through 

 their thought-reciprocity with each other, God being 

 included in the circle, they are the ground of all lit- 

 erally originated, all temporal and spatial existences. 



VI. Hence, relatively to the natural world, they 

 are free, in the sense of being in control of it : so 

 far from being bound by it and its laws, they are the 

 very source of all the law there is or can be in it. 

 Relatively to God also, and to each other, all minds 

 other than God are free, in the still higher sense that 

 nothing but their own light and conviction deter- 

 mines their actions toward each other or toward God. 



