Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/371

310 ingly in and over that life. Once let us settle that we are inherently capable of everlasting existence, we are then assured of the highest worth of our existence as measured by the ideals of Truth, of Beauty, and of Good, since these and their effectually directive operation in us are insured by their essential and constitutive place in our being.

’Tis but a surface-view of human nature which gives the impression that the argument to immortality from our a priori powers leads to nothing more than bare continuance. What it really leads to, is the continuance of a being whose most intimate nature is found, not in the capacity of sensory life, but in the power of setting and appreciating values, through its still higher power of determining its ideals. For such a nature to continue, is to continue in the gradual development of all that makes for worth.

Not only does this follow from the general fact that all conscious being — at any rate, all human conscious life — takes hold a priori upon worth of every sort, but it can be made still plainer by considering for a moment just what the a priori cognition of Worth is, when taken in its highest aspect — the aspect of good will, or morality. The consciousness of self is intrinsically personal — the consciousness of a society — of being in essential and inseparable relation with other selves. That a mind is con-