measure understand Him. Here also, it is to be observed that I do not
say that I altogether know God, but that I understand some of His
attributes--not all, nor the greatest part, and it is clear that my
ignorance of very many does not prevent my knowledge of certain others.
When I learned the elements of Euclid, I very soon understood that the
three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, and I clearly
perceived this property of a triangle, although I was ignorant of many
others." {37a}

"Individual things are nothing but affections or modes of God's
attributes, expressing those attributes in a certain and determinate
manner," {37b} and hence "the more we understand individual objects, the
more we understand God." {37c}

The intellect of God in no way resembles the human intellect, for we
cannot conceive Him as proposing an end and considering the means to
attain it. "The intellect of God, in so far as it is conceived to
constitute His essence, is in truth the cause of things, both of their
essence and of their existence--a truth which seems to have been
understood by those who have maintained that God's intellect, will, and
power are one and the same thing." {37d}

The whole of God is FACT, and Spinoza denies any reserve in Him of
something unexpressed. "The omnipotence of God has been actual from
eternity, and in the same actuality will remain to eternity," {38} not
of course in the sense that everything which exists has always existed
as we now know it, or that nothing will exist hereafter which does not
exist now, but that in God everything that has been, and will be,
eternally IS.