Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/145

 is not connected with the natural mode or aspect of things, but takes place within the Essence itself. If, accordingly, we are to find three stages here, then they constitute an advance within the metaphysical notion itself. They are moments in the Essence, different forms of the notion for the religious self-consciousness which occupies this standpoint. At an earlier stage the advance was merely in the external form, here the advance is within the notion itself. Now, the Divine Essence is actual Essence, Essence for itself, and the differences are its own reflection of itself into itself. We thus get three conceptions. The first is that of Unity, the second that of Necessity, the third that of Conformability to an End, though of conformability which is finite and external.

We have (a.) Unity, absolute Power, negativity, which is posited as reflected into itself, as existing absolutely for self, or as absolute subjectivity, so that here, in this particular form of essential being, the sense element is directly abolished. It is Power which is actual, for itself, and has within it nothing belonging to sense, for this latter is the finite, which has not yet been taken up into, is not yet absorbed by, the Infinite. Here, however, it is in process of being absorbed. This subjectivity, which is actual, which exists for itself, is accordingly the One.

We have (5.) Necessity. The One is this absolute Power, and everything is posited in it as merely negative. This constitutes the conception or notion of the One. But when we express it thus, development is not as yet postulated. The One is nothing more than the form of simplicity, and necessity then comes to be the process of unity itself. It is the unity as inner movement, and is no longer the One, the unit, but the unity. The movement which constitutes the Notion is the unity, the absolute necessity.

We have (c.) Conformability to an End. In absolute necessity is posited or made explicit the movement which