e good,--
the source of all real good, and truth, and energy,--
that is, God. The love of God is the extinction of all
other loves and all other desires; to know God, as far
as man can know him, is power, self-government, and
peace. And this is virtue, and this is blessedness.
Thus, by a formal process of demonstration, we are
brought round to the old conclusions of theology; and
Spinoza protests that it is no new doctrine which he is
teaching, but that it is one which in various dialects
has been believed from the beginning of the world.
It is a necessary consequence of the simple propositions
that happiness depends on the consistency and
coherency of character, and that such coherency can only
be given by the knowledge of the One Being, to know
whom is to know all things adequately, and to love
whom is to have conquered every other inclination.
The more entirely our minds rest on Him, the more
distinctly we regard all things in their relation to Him,
the more we cease to be under the dominion of external
things; we surrender ourselves consciously to do His will,
and as living men and not as passive things we become the
instruments of His power. When the true nature and
true causes of our affections become clear to us, they
have no more power to influence us. The more we
understand, the less can feeling sway us; we know that
all things are what they are, because they are so
constituted that they could not be otherwise, and we cease
to be angry with our brother, we cease to hate him; we
shall not fret at disappointment, nor complain of fortune,
because no such thing as fortune exists; and if we are
disappointed it is better than if we had succeeded, not
perhaps for ourselves, yet for the universe. We cannot
fear, when nothing can befall us except what God,
wills, and we shall not violently hope when the future,
whatever it be, will be the best which is possible.
Seeing all things in their place in the everlasting order,
Past and Future will not affect us. The temptation of
present pleasure will not overcome the certainty of
future pain, for the pain will be as sure as the pleasure,
and we shall see all things under a rule of adamant.
The foolish and the ignorant are led astray by the idea
of contingency, and expect to escape the just issues of
their actions: the wise man will know that each action
brings with it its inevitable consequences, which even
God cannot change without ceasing to be Himself.

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