3IO ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



ingly in and over that life. Once let us settle that 

 we are inherently capable of everlasting existence, 

 we are then assured of the highest worth of our 

 existence as measured by the ideals of Truth, of 

 Beauty, and of Good, since these and their effectually 

 directive operation in us are insured by their essen- 

 tial and constitutive place in our being. 



'Tis but a surface-view of human nature which 

 gives the impression that the argument to immor- 

 tality from our a priori powers leads to nothing 

 more than bare continuance. What it really leads to, 

 is the continuance of a being whose most intimate 

 nature is found, not in the capacity of sensory life, 

 but in the power of setting and appreciating values, 

 through its still higher power of determining its ideals. 

 For such a nature to continue, is to continue in the 

 gradual development of all that makes for worth. 



Not only does this follow from the general fact 

 that all conscious being — at any rate, all human con- 

 scious life — takes hold a priori upon worth of every 

 sort, but it can be made still plainer by consider- 

 ing for a moment just what the a priori cognition 

 of Worth is, when taken in its highest aspect — the 

 aspect of good will, or morality. The consciousness 

 of self is intrinsically personal — the consciousness 

 of a society — of being in essential and inseparable 

 relation with other selves.^ That a mind is con- 



1 See pp. 351 seq., below. 



