§ 194. But the distinguishing flavor and quality of this religion arises from its spiritual hospitality. It is not, like Platonism, a contemplation of the best; nor, like pluralistic idealisms, a moral knight-errantry. It is neither a religion of exclusion, nor a religion of reconstruction, but a profound willingness that things should be as they really are. For this reason its devotees have recognized in Spinoza their true forerunner. But idealism is not Spinozism, though it may contain this as one of its strains. For it is not the worship of necessity, Emerson's "beautiful necessity, which makes man brave in believing that he cannot shun a danger that is appointed, nor incur one that is not"; but the worship of _that which is_ necessary. Not only must one understand that every effort, however despairing, is an element of sense in the universal significance; "that the whole would not be what it is were not precisely this finite purpose left in its own uniqueness to speak precisely its own word--a word which no other purpose can speak in the language of the divine will";[394:15] but one must have a zest for such participation, and a heart for the divine will which it profits. Indeed, so much is this religion a love of life, that it may, as in the case of the Romanticists, be a love of caprice. Battle and death, pain and joy, error and truth--all that belongs to the story of this mortal world, are to be felt as the thrill of health, and relished as the essences of God. Religion is an exuberant spirituality, a fearless sensibility, a knowledge of both good and evil, and a will to serve the good, while exulting that the evil will not yield without a battle. FOOTNOTES: [349:1] By _Absolute Idealism_ is meant that system of philosophy which defines the universe as the _absolute spirit_, which is the human _moral_, _cognitive_, or _appreciative consciousness_ universalized; or as the _absolute, transcendental mind_, whose state of _complete knowledge_ is implied in all finite thinking. [352:2] Plato: _Timæus_, 29. Translation by Jowett. [359:3] Plato: _Symposium_, 202. Translation by Jowett. [359:4] Emerson: _Essays, Second Series_, pp. 65-66. [364:5] Emerson: _Op. cit._, p. 25. The possibility of conflict between this method of nature study and the empirical method of science is significantly attested by the circumstance that in the year 1801 Hegel published a paper in which he maintained, on the ground of certain numerical harmonies, that there could be no planet between Mars and Jupiter, while at almost exactly the same time Piazzi discovered Ceres, the first of the asteroids. [368:6] McTaggart: _Studies in Hegelian Dialectic_, p. 181. [369:7] Green: _Prolegomena to Ethics_, p. 15. [370:8] Plato: _The Sophist_, 248. Translation by Jowett. [382:9] Hegel: _Encyclopädie_, § 45, lecture note. Quoted by McTaggart: _Op. cit._, p. 69. [382:10] Hegel: _Encyclopädie_, § 50. Quoted by McTaggart: _Op. cit._, p. 70.