to say, theoretically as well as practically, their result is Judaism--mere despotic theism. In this sense, then, my doctrine might be called the only true Christian philosophy--however paradoxical a statement this may seem to people who take superficial views instead of penetrating to the heart of the matter. [Footnote 1: Cf. Romans vii; Galatians ii, iii.] If you want a safe compass to guide you through life, and to banish all doubt as to the right way of looking at it, you cannot do better than accustom yourself to regard this world as a penitentiary, a sort of a penal colony, or [Greek: ergastaerion] as the earliest philosopher called it.[1] Amongst the Christian Fathers, Origen, with praiseworthy courage, took this view,[2] which is further justified by certain objective theories of life. I refer, not to my own philosophy alone, but to the wisdom of all ages, as expressed in Brahmanism and Buddhism, and in the sayings of Greek philosophers like Empedocles and Pythagoras; as also by Cicero, in his remark that the wise men of old used to teach that we come into this world to pay the penalty of crime committed in another state of existence--a doctrine which formed part of the initiation into the mysteries.[3] And Vanini--whom his contemporaries burned, finding that an easier task than to confute him--puts the same thing in a very forcible way. _Man_, he says, _is so full of every kind of misery that, were it not repugnant to the Christian religion, I should venture to affirm that if evil spirits exist at all, they have posed into human form and are now atoning for their crimes_.[4] And true Christianity--using the word in its right sense--also regards our existence as the consequence of sin and error. [Footnote 1: Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. L. iii, c, 3, p. 399.] [Footnote 2: Augustine _de cìvitate Dei_., L. xi. c. 23.] [Footnote 3: Cf. _Fragmenta de philosophia_.] [Footnote: 4: _De admirandis naturae arcanis_; dial L. p. 35.] If you accustom yourself to this view of life you will regulate your expectations accordingly, and cease to look upon all its disagreeable incidents, great and small, its sufferings, its worries, its misery, as anything unusual or irregular; nay, you will find that everything is as it should be, in a world where each of us pays the penalty of existence in his own peculiar way. Amongst the evils of a penal colony is the society of those who form it; and if the reader is worthy of better company, he will need no words from me to remind him of what he has to put up with at present. If he has a soul above the common, or if he is a man of genius, he will occasionally feel like some noble prisoner of state, condemned to work in the galleys with common criminals; and he will follow his example and try to isolate himself.