This universal is put to good use by the principle of individuality, in so far as thIs principle lives in the virtuous consciousness, but is misused in so far as it dings to the 'way of the world' a passive instrument which, controlled by a free individuality which is indifferent to the use it makes of it, can also be misused for the production of an actual existence which destroys it: a lifeless material lacking an independence of its own, which can be formed this way or that, or even to its ruin.