by final causation, — that is, simply by being the impersonated Ideal of every mind.
IV. The members of this Eternal Republic have
no origin but their purely logical one of reference
to each other, including thus their primary reference
to God. That is, in the literal sense of the word,
they have no origin at all — no source in time
whatever. There is nothing at all, prior to them, out of
which their being arises; they are not “things” in
the chain of eiificient causation. They simply are,
and together constitute the eternal order.
V. Still, they exist only in and through their
mutually thought correlation, their eternal “City,”
and out of it would be non-existent. But through
their thought-reciprocity with each other, God being
included in the circle, they are the ground of all
literally originated, all temporal and spatial existences.
VI. Hence, relatively to the natural world, they
are free, in the sense of being in control of it: so
far from being bound by it and its laws, they are the
very source of all the law there is or can be in it.
Relatively to God also, and to each other, all minds
other than God are free, in the still higher sense that
nothing but their own light and conviction determines
their actions toward each other or toward God.
