SPINOZA: 1G77 AND 1877. 227 



piety. Religion in a system such as this is not a portion of life: it is 

 life itself. That which is seen to matter here is not the bein"- in pos- 

 session of some metaphysical phrases more or less correct : it is the 

 giving to one's life a sure pole, a supreme direction the ideal. 



It is by so doing that your illustrious countryman has lifted up a 

 banner which still avails to shelter beneath it all who think and -feel 

 nobly. Yes, religion is eternal ; it answers to the first need of primi- 

 tive as well as of civilized man; it will only perish with humanity it- 

 self or, rather, its disappearance would be the proof that deo-enerate 

 humanity was about to reenter the mere animalism out of which it had 

 emerged. And yet no dogma, no worship, no formula, can in these 

 days of ours exhaust the religious sentiment. We must confront with 

 each other these seemingly contradictory assertions. Woe to him 

 who pretends that the era of religions is past ! Woe to him who 

 imagines it possible to restore to the old symbols the force they had 

 when they leaned upon the imperturbable dogmatism of other days ! 

 With that dogmatism we, for our part, must needs dispense ; we must 

 dispense with those fixed creeds, sources of so many struggles and 

 divisions, but sources no less of such fervent convictions ; we must 

 give up believing that it is our part to hold down others in a faith we 

 no longer share. Spinoza was right in his horror of hypocrisy : hy- 

 pocrisyis cowardly and dishonest, but, above all, hypocrisy is useless. 

 Who is it, indeed, that is deceived here ? The persistency of the 

 higher classes in unqualifiedly jjatronizing, in sight of the uncultivated 

 classes, the religious reforms of other days, will have but one eifect : 

 that of impairing their own authority at those times of crisis when it 

 is important that the people should still believe in the reason and the 

 virtue of a few. 



Honor, then, to Spinoza, who has dared to say : " Reason before all." 

 Reason can never be contrary to the well-understood" interests of hu- 

 manity. But we would remind those who are carried away by unre- 

 fleeting impatience, that Spinoza never conceived of religious revolu- 

 tion as being aught else than a transformation of formulas. Accord- 

 ing to him, what was fundamental went on subsisting under other 

 terms. If he, on one hand, energetically repudiated the theocratic 

 power of the clergy, as distinguished from civil society, or the ten- 

 dency of the state to occupy itself with metaphysics, on the other 

 hand, he never denied either the state or religion : he wished the state 

 tolerant and religion free. We wish for nothing more. One cannot 

 impose on others beliefs one does not possess. That the believers of 

 other days made themselves persecutors, proved them tyrannical, but 

 at least consistent; as for us, if we were to act as they did, Ave should 

 be simply absurd. Our religion is a sentiment capable of clothing 

 itself in numerous forms. These forms are free from being equally 

 good ; but not one of them has strength or authority to expel all 

 others. Freedom this is the last word of Spinoza's religious policy. 



