may, is my very self? To me it is the most important thing in the
world.

_For God is God and I am I_.

_I_ want to exist, _I, I_. That's the main thing. I don't care about
an existence which has to be proved to be mine, before I can believe
it.

_Philalethes_. Think what you're doing! When you say _I, I, I_ want
to exist, it is not you alone that says this. Everything says it,
absolutely everything that has the faintest trace of consciousness. It
follows, then, that this desire of yours is just the part of you that
is _not individual_--the part that is common to all things without
distinction. It is the cry, not of the individual, but of existence
itself; it is the intrinsic element in everything that exists, nay, it
is the cause of anything existing at all. This desire craves for, and
so is satisfied with, nothing less than existence in general--not any
definite individual existence. No! that is not its aim. It seems to be
so only because this desire--this _Will_--attains consciousness only
in the individual, and therefore looks as though it were concerned
with nothing but the individual. There lies the illusion--an illusion,
it is true, in which the individual is held fast: but, if he reflects,
he can break the fetters and set himself free. It is only indirectly,
I say, that the individual has this violent craving for existence. It
is _the Will to Live_ which is the real and direct aspirant--alike and
identical in all things. Since, then, existence is the free work, nay,
the mere reflection of the will, where existence is, there, too,
must be will; and for the moment the will finds its satisfaction in
existence itself; so far, I mean, as that which never rests, but