For this purpose
it becomes necessary to have a Standard of the Personal Factor independent
of any individual conceptions, just as we found that in order for us to
attain self-consciousness at all it was a necessity that there should be a
Universal Mind as the _generic_ basis of all individual mentality; only in
regard to the generic build of mind the conformity is necessarily
automatic, while in regard to the specializing process the fact that the
essence of that process is Selection and Initiative renders it impossible
for the conformity to the Standard of Personality to be automatic--the very
nature of the thing makes it a matter of individual choice.
Now a Standard of Personality independent of individual conceptions must be
the _essence_ of Personality as distinguished from individual
idiosyncrasies, and can therefore be nothing else than the Creative Life,
Love, Beauty, etc., viewed as a Divine Individuality, by identifying
ourselves with which we eliminate all possibility of conflict with other
personalities based on the same fundamental recognition; and the very
universality of this Standard allows free play to all our particular
idiosyncrasies while at the same time preventing them from antagonizing the
fundamental principles to which we have found that the Self-contemplation
of the Originating Spirit must necessarily give rise.
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