Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/532

 original Unity, it was assuredly indeterminate, and only continuously determinate in an Infinite Time. But such an act of determination could only become possible in Time, in opposition to some resisting power. This resisting power, which was thus to be conquered by the act of determination, could be nothing else than the Sensuous Instinct; and hence the necessity of such a continuous self-determination in Time would be the sure proof that the Instinct was not yet thoroughly abolished; which abolition we have made a condition of entering upon the Life in God.

Through the actual and complete annihilation of the Instinct, that infinite determinability is itself annihilated, and absorbed in a single, absolute determination. This determination is the absolute and simple Will which makes the likewise simple Imperative the impulsive Principle of the Power. Even if this Power should still flow forth into Infinitude, as it must do, the variety is only in its products, not in itself:—it is simple, and its purpose is simple, and this purpose is at once and for ever completed.

And thus then the Will is that point in which Intelligizing, and Intuition or Reality, thoroughly interpenetrate each other. It is a real principle,—for it is absolute, irresistibly determining the Power, while it also maintains and supports itself;—it is an intelligizing principle,—for it penetrates itself, and recognises the Imperative. In it the Power is completely exhausted, and the Schema of the Divine Life elevated to Actuality.

The infinite activity of the Power itself is not for its own sake, and as an ultimate end; but it is only for the sake of evidencing, in Intuition, the Being of the Will.