of its reality which we call substance. But one should
add that this substantiality, the unity of the absolute reality with
itself, is but the foundation, but a moment in the determination of God
as spirit. Hence, principally, arises the reproach which is directed
against philosophy--to wit, that philosophy, to be consistent with
itself, is necessarily Spinozism, and consequently atheism and fatalism.
But at the beginning we have not yet determinations distinguished one
from another as aye and nay. We have the one but not the other.

Consequently, what we have here is, to start with, content under the
form of substance. Even when we say, "God," "spirit," we have only
words, indeterminate representations. The essential point is to know
what has been produced in the consciousness. And that is, first, the
simple, the abstract. Here, in this first simple determination, we have
God only under the form of universality. Only we do not halt at this
moment.

Nevertheless, this content remains the foundation of all further
developments, for in these developments God comes not forth from His
unity. When God creates the world--to use the expression of every
day--there comes not into existence an evil, a contrary, existing in
itself independently of God.

_III.--GOD EXISTS FOR THOUGHT_

This Beginning is an object for us or a content in us. We possess this
object. Immediately the question arises, Who are we? We, I, spirit--here
also is a complex being, a multiplied being. I have perceptions; I see,
I hear, etc. Seeing, hearing; all this is I. Consequently, the precise
sense of this question is, Which among these determinations is it in
accordance with which this content exists for our minds? Idea, will,
imagination, feeling--which is the seat, the proper domain of this
content, of this object?

If we accept the common answers to this question, God will abide in us
as the object of faith, of feeling, of representation, of knowledge.

We shall have to examine more closely later on in a special fashion with
respect to this point, these forms, faculties, aspects of ourselves. In
this place we shall not seek a reply to this question; nor shall we say,
basing our answer on experience and observation, that God is in our
feeling, etc. But, to begin with, we will confine ourselves to what we
have actually before us, to this One, to this universal, to this
concrete Being.

If we take this One, and ask for what power, for what acti