In  the  third  place  —  and  this  is  the  chief  thing  to  be  said  in
regard  to  our  problem  —  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  Fichte's
ultimate  principle  is  not  merely  an  unrealized,  but  rather  a  self-
realizing  value.  This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  great  difference  be-
tween the  point  of  view  from  which  our  questions  have  been  put
and  the  point  of  view  which  Fichte  takes,  which  all  of  us  must
take  —  at  least  for  the  time  being  —  if  we  would  understand  him.
For  if  the  supreme  value  is  at  the  same  time  a  self-realizing  prin-
ciple, then  it  has  some  other  kind  of  reality  than  that  of  a  mere
value.  There  are  three  different  conceptions  for  which  we  need
appropriate  expressions.  First,  one  may  be  thinking  of  value
merely  as  such,  without  reference  to  its  realization  or  non-real-
ization.    Of  it  one  may  say  that  it  is  valid ;   for  it  has  validity

^Op.  ciL,  Book  III,  Chap.  II,  I  320.
112  FICHTE'S  FUNDAMENTAL   PRINCIPLE.
quite  irrespective  of  its  realization.  Secondly,  one  may  wish  to
speak  of  a  value  which  is  already  realized,  which  has  assumed
individual  form  and  is  connected  with  some  definite  point  in  time.
