Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/525

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gives itself up wholly to the contemplation of the Material World and is exhausted therein, is distinct from that in which it becomes cognizant of its Instinct towards activity in this previously recognised World;—that nevertheless there remains, even in the latter position, a Schema of present and necessary Existence, in order that it may be possible for the Instinct to enter into relations with such Existence:—and this forms the connexion between these two separate and distinct positions of Intuition.

This whole domain of Intuition is, as we said, the expression and Schema of mere Power. Since Power, without the Schema of the Divine Life, is nothing, while here it is nevertheless schematized in this its nothingness,—this whole domain is consequently nothing in itself, and only in its relation to Actual Being does it acquire significance, the practical possibility of the latter being dependent upon it.


X.


There is further contained in the Power an original determination to raise itself to the perception of the Imperative, the practical realization of which is now rendered immediately possible by the recognised Existence of the whole domain of Intuition. But how and in what way can this elevation be accomplished? That which abides firmly in Intuition, and is indeed the very root of it, is Instinct;—by its means the Power itself is made dependent on Intuition, and is imprisoned within it. The condition and the only means for the now possible realization of the Power, is therefore the liberation of itself from Instinct, and the abolition of the latter as the invisible and blind impulse of schematizing;—and in the