same ground) the former also must be necessarily assumed; i.e. we must admit that there is a God.

This proof, to which we can easily give the form of logical precision, does not say: it is as necessary to assume the Being of God as to recognise the validity of the moral law; and consequently he who cannot convince himself of the first, can judge himself free from the obligations of the second. No! there must in such case only be given up the aiming at the final purpose in the world, to be brought about by the pursuit of the second (viz. a happiness of rational beings in harmony with the pursuit of moral laws, regarded as the highest good).

Every rational being would yet have to cognise himself as straitly bound by the precepts of morality, for its laws are