This essay represents Josiah Royce's 1899 Harvard Ingersoll Lecture on Human Immortality. Royce posits that reality consists of one unified aspect, the Absolute, which conditions all being. By situating humans within this infinite Absolute, a relation of individual existence to immortality emerges.

Royce (1855-1916) is known as a leading proponent of the philosophy of absolute idealism. Royce's notable related works include The World and the Individual (1899-1901), and The Philosophy of Loyalty (1908).