109 
still, as lie exists in and for himself ; for, otherwise, we should 
imagine every man to exist for others, and no man for himself 
— which would be impossible : for if the well-being of a 
thousand men be worth attaining, so also is the well-being of 
each. Indeed the laws of a community, and the community 
itself, might have no reason for existence except the indivi- 
dual , while his responsibility can in no other way be developed 
and protected than in a polity. 
The perfecting of the individual character being thus the 
end to be attained, we find that the fact of responsibility, on 
which we have thus far rested, is not all that is meant by 
moral agency. The perfecting of a moral being 
for his own sake is something more. The fact that c iudesTrespon" 
the conscious agent may deteriorate, or may, on the ^iiity; but is 
other hand, attain a higher personal relation with 
the always-true, opens to us another train of reflections. The 
events of each man's career make proof of him, and we may see 
at last what he will become. He is, as it is commonly expressed, 
“ in a state of probation." Probation includes responsibility, 
but is evidently another idea. The probation or trial of indi- 
vidual character has for its ultimate object not the present 
adjustment of the mutual relations of finite beings, but of the 
position to be held at last by the conscious being himself in the 
system of the universe. 
96. No doubt many and widely varied considerations may be 
found comprehended in individual Probation, which as yet we 
have scarcely glanced at : but the fundamental fact must be, 
that each conscious being aims, if rightly directed, at a true 
subordination to the eternal Reason of the Supreme. The finite 
good must for its perfection ever tend to the true-aiways. 
There is a sublimity and loneliness in the fact of each Indi- 
vidual Probation having thus to proceed towards its end, which 
wonderfully corresponds with the further fact, that every man 
in his reflecting moments feels that he is a kind of T . . . 
centre, a secret fountain ot being, to which all the dividua'iity of 
phenomenal is but relative. Responsibility to probatlon * 
others, praise or blame from others, are just as nothing when 
compared with his own conscious responsibility to the true- 
always, his own acquittal and his own blame within, — all un- 
known perhaps to every other finite observer. This solitary 
probation of each conscious being, in the midst of the social 
system around him, finds alleviation, however, in the protec- 
tion, and guidance, and ultimate justice, of the Supreme and 
unfailing Moral Governor. 
97. This, indeed, is the satisfaction which is so needed by 
the moral agent, that, without it, all would be enigma and 
