Note 19 — Chapter VI · THE STUDY OF NATURE. FUNDAMENTAL POSITIONS.

B. The individual soul and the soul of the universe. The individual soul bears the same relation to the soul of the universe that a part does to the whole. The human soul is not only a part, as are all other living powers, of the universal power of life, but, because it possesses reason, it has a special relationship to the Divine Being19—a relationship which becomes closer in proportion as we allow greater play to the divine element in ourselves, i.e. to reason.20 On this very account, however, the soul cannot escape the law of the Divine Being, in the shape of general necessity, or destiny. It is a mere delusion to suppose that the soul possesses a freedom independent of the world’s course. The human will, like everything else in the world, is bound into the indissoluble chain of natural causes, and that irrespectively of our knowing by what causes the will is decided or not. Its freedom consists in this, that, instead of being ruled from without, it obeys the call of its own nature, external circumstances concurring.21 To this power of self-determination, however, the greatest value is attached. Not only are our actions due to it to such an extent that only because of it can they be considered ours,22 but even our judgments are, as the Stoics thought, dependent on it. The soul itself being open to truth or error, convictions are quite as much in our power as actions:23 both are alike the necessary result of the will. And just as the individual soul does not possess activity independently of the universal soul, no more can the individual soul escape the law of destiny. It, too, at the end of the world’s course, will be resolved into the primary substance, the Divine Being. The only point about which the Stoics were undecided was, whether all souls would last until that time as separate souls, which was the view of Cleanthes, or only the souls of the wise, as Chrysippus held.24