Excerpt from Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Together With a Work on the Proofs of the Existence of God, Vol. 2 of 3 I. The Universal, as determining its own self, and not merely as a multitude Of rules, is Thought, exists as Thought. It is in our thoughts alone that Nature, the ruling Power which brings forth everything, exists as the Universal, as this One Essence, as this One Power which exists for itself. What we have before us in Nature is this Universal, but not as a Universal. It is in our thought that the truth Of Nature is brought into prominence on its own account as Idea, or more abstractly as something having a universal character. Universality is, however, in its very nature Thought, and as self-determining is the source Of all determina tion. But at the stage at which we now are, and where the Universal appears for the first time as the determining agent, as a Principle, it is not as yet Spirit, but abstract Universality generally. The Universal being known in this way as Thought, it remains as such shut up within itself. It is the source of all power, but does not externalise or make itself manifest as such. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.