Sentence:  A certain <WSD>groundplan</WSD> of Human Nature and Life began to fashion itself in me ; wondrous enough, now when I look back on it ; for my whole Universe, physical and spiritual, was as yet a Machine ! However, such a conscious, recognised <WSD>groundplan</WSD>, the truest I had, was beginning to be there, and by additional experiments might be corrected and indefinitely extended.' 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A framework or pattern showing the form of something, without all the details.