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certain numerical proportions pervading (as Kepler saw, and all now see) 
the physical Universe, so, in the sphere of conscious agency, there is a 
ground and substance for thought, antecedent to our thought ; not a 
method laid down as by command, hut a reality which is to be directly 
discerned by us. 
4. This previous Reason, or a priori , is found in relation with all con- 
scious agency. We cannot put ourselves out of willing relation with it 
without self-disquiet, and at times a sense that w r e are wrong. We are 
conscious that we ought to be in relation with the previous Reason of 
things. All conscious agents should be, and tend to be ; and they judge 
one another accordingly. We feel that if there were a Supreme Conscious 
being as Judge of all, He too would “judge according to right.” 
5. The Phenomenal Universe points to Prae-phenomenal Being and 
Life, — 
“ Springs of life, and thought, and motion, 
Here are mysteries all unread ; — 
Even passion’s dark commotion 
Has some secret Fountain-head.” 
Consciousness points also, as a kind of Life, to prsc-phenomenal Con- 
sciousness ; still in Relation with Reason. Many kinds of Life, however, 
seem to be indicated as prse-phenomenal ; but they are variously limited in 
their direction and operation, and are sometimes unconscious. The highest 
kinds of Life, even conscious Life, require preceding conscious Life. 
G. Tiie Eternal Life — the Ever-Living One — is the pra-phenomenal 
Being in whom is previous Consciousness in relation with Absolute Reason 
only, and distinct altogether from the Phenomena. His knowledge, essen- 
tially considered, is not phenomenal, but absolute and preceding the 
Universe, and essentially beyond relation to the Universe. His knowledge 
in Himself is absolute, and that in its essentiality is beyond our know- 
ledge as a formal conception. When He places us in relation with Himselt 
by an act prior to the knowledge of finite consciousness, we know Him as 
far as He is pleased to reveal Himself. When He works in the sphere of 
the phenomenal, He makes conscious finite agents subworkers with Him, 
freely tending towards pne-phenomenal Reason and Good. He fixes some 
things, leaves others unfixed, but is never made part of His own pheno- 
mena, in the past, present, or future, as Predestinarianism, Materialism, 
and Fatalism alike would make Him. Much of the error latent in the 
Eleatic philosophy is traceable also to a confusion of the Phenomenal 
and the Absolute. (See the Analysis of Human Responsibility, § GO, 
Vol. IV. of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute.) 
7. The same confusion pervades the modern views advocated by Mr. 
Spencer, and is only to be cleared by the analysis above suggested. 
Mr. Spencer seems at present to be endeavouring to bring himself to main- 
tain that the d priori, being of course anterior to the argumentative pro- 
ce*ses of the conscious agent is “ unthinkable ” and “ unknowable.” 
