EARTH-LIFE ASSIMILATION. 337 



through his other, which is Earth-life hav- 

 ing the external power of individuation. But 

 when the individual can individuate himself, 

 he can be no more the victim of Life even 

 of Earth-life. 



To die is on the on^ hand to yield to Na- 

 ture, to be subject to her separation, her in- 

 dividuation, her negation. But on the other 

 hand it is also to transcend Nature, to separ- 

 ate from her separation, to serve up her deep- 

 est character to herself. Thus she is at last 

 self-undoing. Ego, or Spirit, is this perpetual 

 dialectic of Nature, making her final act not 

 death, but the death of death the negation 

 of her negative. The ultimate principle of 

 Nature is separation, universal separation, 

 hence in the end separation from itself as Na- 

 ture, or as the externally separated; thus it 

 becomes the internally separated, or the self- 

 separated. In other words, Nature of its own 

 inherent character rises to Spirit, as that 

 which lay implicitly in it from the beginning, 

 and will not stay in its dualism, but is always 

 overcoming the same, even if positing it. So 

 we reach a new Nature, whch becomes one 

 with itself in and through its separation. 



Many are the special ways in which the 

 Earth-life attacks and undoes the individual 

 Life; these are the particular diseases which 

 can often be met and cured. But the one uni- 



