r any other part of the bodily frame, or in any form of
speech or knowledge, nor existing in any other being; . . .
but beauty only, absolute, separate, simple, and everlasting,
which without diminution and without increase, or any change,
is imparted to the ever-growing and perishing beauties of all
other things."[347:15]

The religion of Spinoza is the religion of one who has renounced the
favor of the universe. He was deprived early in life of every benefit of
fortune, and set out to find the good which required no special
dispensation but only the common lot and the common human endowment. He
found that good to consist in the conviction of the necessity, made
acceptable through the supremacy of the understanding. The like faith of
the Stoics makes of no account the difference of fortune between Marcus
the emperor and Epictetus the slave.

"For two reasons, then, it is right to be content with that
which happens to thee; the one because it was done for thee
and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to
thee, originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy
destiny; and the other because even that which comes severally
to every man is to the power which administers the universe a
cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very
continuance. For the integrity of the whole is mutilated, if
thou cuttest off anything whatever from the conjunction and
the continuity either of the parts or of the causes. And thou
dost cut off, as far as it is in thy power, when thou art
dissatisfied, and in a manner triest to put anything out of
the way."[348:16]

FOOTNOTES:

[306:1] By _Absolute Realism_ is meant that system of philosophy which
defines the universe as the _absolute being_, implied in knowledge as
its final object, but assumed to be independent of knowledge. In the
_Spinozistic_ system this absolute being is conceived under the form of
_substance_, or self-sufficiency; in _Platonism_ under the form of
_perfection_; and in the _Aristotelian_ system under the form of a
_hierarchy of substances_.

[308:2] Burnet: _Early Greek Philosophy_, p. 185.

[309:3] When contrasted with the temporal realm of "generation and
decay," this ultimate object is often called the _eternal_.

[311:4] Holland, 1632-1677.

[312:5] Spinoza: _Ethics_, Part I. Translation by Elwes, p. 45.

[314:6] _Ibid._, p. 49.

[318:7] _I