the newspapers, compared with the possibility now thrown open of a life
of eternal ideals, lived in and for them!


XV.

I had an even deeper perception of my initiation when I went back from
Hegel to Spinoza and, filled with awe and enthusiasm, read the
_Ethica_ for the first time. Here I stood at the source of modern
pantheistic Philosophy. Here Philosophy was even more distinctly
Religion, since it took Religion's place. Though the method applied was
very artificial, purely mathematical, at least Philosophy had here the
attraction of a more original type of mind, the effect being much the
same as that produced by primitive painting, compared with a more
developed stage. His very expression, _God or Nature_, had a
fascinating mysticism about it. The chapter in the book which is devoted
to the Natural History of passions, surprised and enriched one by its
simple, but profound, explanation of the conditions of the human soul.
And although his fight against Superstition's views of life is conducted
with a keenness that scouts discussion, whereas in modern Philosophy the
contention is merely implied, it seemed as though his thoughts travelled
along less stormy paths.

In Hegel, it had been exclusively the comprehensiveness of the thoughts
and the mode of the thought's procedure that held my attention. With
Spinoza it was different. It was his personality that attracted, the
great man in him, one of the greatest that History has known. With him a
new type had made its entrance into the world's History; he was the calm
thinker, looking down from above on this earthly life, reminding one, by
the purity and strength of his character, of Jesus, but a contrast to