346 THE EIDDLE OF THE UNIVEKSE. 



noble fruits of the tree of knowledge and the 

 inestimable treasure of a clear, unified view of 

 the world — not belief in supernatural miracles and 

 the illusion of an eternal life. 



II. — It is otherwise with the divine ideal of eternal 

 goodness. In our search for the truth we have 

 entirely to exclude the " revelation " of the Churches, 

 and devote ourselves solely to the study of nature ; 

 but, on the other hand, the idea of the good, which we 

 call virtue, in our monistic religion coincides for the 

 most part with the Christian idea of virtue. We are 

 speaking, naturally, of the primitive and pure Chris- 

 tianity of the first three centuries, as far as we learn 

 its moral teaching from the gospels and the epistles 

 of Paul ; it does not apply to the Vatican caricature 

 of that pure doctrine which has dominated European 

 civilization, to its infinite prejudice, for 1,200 years. 

 The best part of Christian morality, to which we firmly 

 adhere, is represented by the humanist precepts of 

 charity and toleration, compassion and assistance. 

 However, these noble commands, which are set down 

 as " Christian " morality (in its best sense), are by no 

 means original discoveries of Christianity ; they were 

 derived from earlier religions. The Golden Rule, 

 which sums up these precepts in one sentence, is 

 centuries older than Christianity. In the conduct of 

 life this law of natural morality has been followed 

 just as frequently by non-Christians and atheists as 

 it has been neglected by pious believers. Moreover, 

 Christian ethics was marred by the great defect of a 

 narrow insistence on altruism and a denunciation of 

 egoism. Our monistic ethics lays equal emphasis on 

 the two, and finds perfect virtue in the just balance of 

 love of self and love of one's neighbour (cf. chap. xix.). 



