living activity by a mere rational idea, but that affect must be put up against affect, power against power, passion against passion, if any result is to be reached, is expressed by Spinoza himself in the words: "An affect cannot be restrained nor removed unless by an opposed and stronger affect.”1 For him, therefore, who has an interest not only in the recognition of truth as such, as was the case with Spinoza, but also in leading men to a godly and rational mode of life by means of the recognition of truth, as with Jesus Christ, it will be impossible to remain satisfied with the mere intellectual love of God, that is, with that love of God which consists in a pure knowledge of His nature and at the same time in a knowledge of the nature of the world. He will first of all see his highest task in the active, practical love of God, and this will be for him. identical with the active, practical love of man. Christ did not simply retire to His closet and there construct a philosophical system by which the impulse to gain knowledge should be satisfied within us, but He went out into the market-places and lanes, into the houses and synagogues, healing and comforting, and working on others by His living example, until His last and greatest act which was the sealing of His infinite love to God and man by an ignominious and agonising death. It was not His teaching alone that lent to Christ His vast power over human minds, but the imitative impulse called forth and brought to life by His actions. There emanated from His personality a power that enabled others to convert His teachings into acts. But if Spinoza is one-sided in his estimate of knowledge, that is of freedom or genius of pure thought, he is undeniably great in the conception and development of his 1 Ethic, p. 185. philosophical system. With the incomparable insight of genius he grasped those principles that are at the base of all that exists, and erected upon them a marvellous system into which every great discovery of modern science, and especially of natural science can easily be fitted. Thus the cell-theory, atomism, the law of the conservation of energy, the doctrine of evolution, and other important truths with which we have become acquainted within the last fifty years, are already indicated in Spinoza's system and are in perfect harmony with it. But the most far-reaching of all is the truth on which the whole system is based, namely, that all that exists belongs to the one Nature, to the one essence of God, which finds expression in the vast multiplicity of the things of this world and which is, nevertheless, one spiritual Unity. "The more we understand individual objects," says Spinoza, "the more we understand God;" that is, the deeper the understanding we gain of the nature of individual things and the better we grasp their true idea, the more completely shall we recognise their closer connection with the highest idea, the idea of God. This deeper knowledge of ideas and their connection with the highest idea of God is accompanied by most intense enjoyment, since by its means man's power of thought reaches its highest expression. The impulse towards knowledge obtains thereby its fullest satisfaction, and that blessedness arises which, according to Spinoza, is combined with the intellectual love of God: "The highest good of the mind," says Spinoza, "is the knowledge of God." And it is the impulse towards the highest knowledge that Spinoza calls the mind's intellectual love towards God. But, according to him, this impulse is of divine origin, and emanates from God Himself; the more 1 Ethic, p. 270. 2 Id. p. 200. a man is inspired from on high and expresses in his own nature the nature of God, the stronger is that impulse towards the highest knowledge, hence "The intellectual love of the mind towards God is the very love with which He loves Himself, in so far as He can be manifested through the essence of the human mind."1 This doctrine of Spinoza's is correct, but one-sided, as before said. The divine principle in man reveals itself not only in this impulse, in this love for knowledge, but just as much in the love for what is beautiful and creative. Just as there is bliss in the satisfaction of the striving after knowledge, so there is bliss in the satisfaction of the passion for beauty and the impulse towards action. Hence there is not only an intellectual love of the mind towards God, but also an aesthetic and a practical one. When perfection enters into our thoughts, we conceive of it as truth, when it enters through our senses, it appears as beauty, and when it expresses itself in action, it becomes a creative deed. The practical love of the mind towards that which is eternal is the highest love and has found its most beautiful embodiment in Christ and in Buddha. 1 Ethic, p. 276. VIII. THE AWAKENING OF MENTAL WHILE in Spinoza we recognise the representative of the philosophical, or as he calls it, intellectual love of God, in Jesus Christ we see the embodiment of the active and practical love of God. But this active and practical love of God is explicitly declared by Christ to coincide with the active and practical love of man in His words: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."1 Let us see how this is meant. To love an object is to desire its existence, to desire all that belongs to its existence. If our attitude towards the beloved object is an aesthetic one, one of sensation, our love will find expression in the fact that in our sense-perception of the beloved object we specially notice those points that meet our wish for its unimpeded, unchecked existence, namely, all that is harmonious and perfect in its outer aspect; for the harmony in outside appearance, which we call beauty, is in the closest con 1 Matt. xxii. 37-40. nection with the harmonious co-operation of the parts of the object, and on this harmonious co-operation of its parts depends its existence, its life. Again, if our attitude towards the beloved object is a theoretical one, one of thought and understanding, this love will find expression in the fact that we seek to comprehend and connect in ideas all upon which the beloved object's existence is based; we endeavour to grasp the fundamental idea of its existence, the law by which it is originated and further developed and according to which all its parts co-operate so as to produce an animated whole tending to an ever greater fulness of life. Lastly, if our love is active and practical, it will find expression in an endeavour to promote by our actions everything necessary to the existence, to the life of the beloved object; we shall endeavour to benefit it, and whenever its existence is at stake, whenever its life is threatened or impeded, we shall actively interfere, in order to remove all interruptions and hindrances, and to permit the beloved object full play in the development of its will to live. For existence is identical with the desire to exist, namely, in some definite form or shape. Existence or Life is inconceivable without the will to live, without an impulse, a force, an energy directed towards existence. But this will to live is always, as before said, connected with some definite form, with some particular type, with some idea which it is the innate impulse of the object itself, in the course of its development, to realise. Existence itself, therefore, always includes the will to exist in some definite manner. The essence or nature of every object consists in the endeavour, in the impulse, in the power, to become existent, to maintain its existence, and to develop according to quite a definite law. This is what Spinoza means, when he says, "The effort by which each thing endeavours |