Essays in Literature and HistoryFroude, James Anthony
History
Essays in Literature and History
Froude, James Anthony
History; Literature
Yet if we cannot believe Spinoza's system taken in
its entire completeness, yet we may not blind ourselves
to the beauty of his practical rule of life, or the
disinterestedness and calm nobility which pervades it. He
will not hear of a virtue which desires to be rewarded.
Virtue is the power of God in the human soul, and that
is the exhaustive end of all human desire. "Beatitudo
non est virtutis pretium, sed ipsa virtus. Nihil aliud
est quam ipsa animi acquiescentia, quae ex Dei intuitiva
cognitione oritur." And the same spirit of generosity
exhibits itself in all his conclusions. The ordinary
objects of desire, he says, are of such a kind that for
one man to obtain them is for another to lose them;
and this alone would suffice to prove that they are not
what any man should labour after. But the fullness of
God suffices for us all, and he who possesses this good
desires only to communicate it to every one, and to
make all mankind as happy as himself. And again:--
"The wise man will not speak in society of his neighbour's
faults, and sparingly of the infirmity of human
nature; but he will speak largely of human virtue and
human power, and of the means by which that nature
can best be perfected, so to lead men to put away that
fear and aversion with which they look on goodness,
and learn with relieved hearts to love and desire it."
And once more:--"He who loves God will not desire
that God should love him in return with any partial or
particular affection, for that is to desire that God for his
sake should change his everlasting nature and become
lower than himself."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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