ly grant that this decree of the mind, which
is believed to be free, is not distinguishable from the imagination or
memory, and is nothing but the affirmation which the idea necessarily
involves in so far as it is an idea. These decrees of the mind,
therefore, arise in the mind by the same necessity as the ideas of
things actually existing. Consequently, those who believe that they
speak, or are silent, or do anything else from a free decree of the
mind, dream with their eyes open.

_The Moral Values of Determinism_

I

It remains for me now to show what service to our own lives a knowledge
of this doctrine is. This we shall easily understand from the remarks
which follow. Notice--

1. It is of service in so far as it teaches us that we do everything by
the will of God alone, and that we are partakers of the divine nature in
proportion as our actions become more and more perfect and we more and
more understand God. This doctrine, therefore, besides giving repose in
every way to the soul, has also this advantage, that it teaches us in
what our highest happiness or blessedness consists, namely, in the
knowledge of God alone, by which we are drawn to do those things only
which love and piety persuade. Hence we clearly see how greatly those
stray from the true estimation of virtue who expect to be distinguished
by God with the highest rewards for virtue and the noblest actions as if
for the completest servitude, just as if virtue itself and the service
of God were not happiness itself and the highest liberty.

2. It is of service to us in so far as it teaches us how we ought to
behave with regard to the things of fortune, or those which are not in
our power, that is to say, which do not follow from our own nature; for
it teaches us with equal mind to wait for and bear each form of fortune,
because we know that all things follow from the eternal decree of God,
according to that same necessity by which it follows from the essence of
a triangle that its three angles are equal to two right angles.

3. This doctrine contributes to the welfare of our social existence,
since it teaches us to hate no one, to despise no one, to mock no one,
to be angry with no one, and to envy no one. It teaches every one,
moreover, to be content with his own, and to be helpful to his neighbor,
not from any womanish pity, from partiality, or superstition, but by the
guidance of reason alone, according to the demand of time and
circumstance,