1. In the Metaphysics (xi. 7) he shows ontologically, starting with _motion_ as an hypothesis, that the _self-moved_ is the first principle; and this he identifies with the speculative, and the being of God. 2. In the _De Anima_ (iii. 5-8) he distinguishes psychologically the “active intellect” as the highest form of knowing, as that which is its own object, (subject and object,) and hence as containing its own end and aim in itself—as being infinite. He identifies this with the Speculative result, which he found ontologically as the Absolute. Spinoza in his Ethics (Prop. xl. Schol. ii., and Prop, xliv., Cor. ii. of Part II.) has well described the Speculative, which he names “_Scientia intuitiva_,” as the thinking of things under the form of eternity, (_De natura rationis est res sub quadam specie æternitatis percipere._) Though great diversity is found in respect to form and systematic exposition among the great philosophers, yet there is the most complete unanimity, not only with respect to the transcendency of the Speculative, but also with reference to the content of its knowing. If the reader of different systems of Philosophy has in himself achieved some degree of Speculative culture, he will at every step be delighted and confirmed at the agreement of what, to the ordinary reader, seem irreconcilable statements. Not only do speculative writers agree among themselves as to the nature of things, and the destiny of man and the world, but their results furnish us in the form of pure thought what the artist has wrought out in the form of beauty. Whether one tests architecture, sculpture, painting, music or poetry, it is all the same. Goethe has said: “As all Nature’s thousand changes But one changeless God proclaim; So in Art’s wide kingdoms ranges One sole meaning, still the same: This is Truth, eternal Reason, Which from Beauty takes its dress, And serene, through time and season, Stands for aye in loveliness.”