is measured and determined by the effect of it upon his collective powers.  The appetites gather power from their several objects of desire; but the power of the part is the weakness of the whole; and man as a collective person gathers life, being, and self-mastery only from the absolute good,—­ the source of all real good, and truth, and energy,—­ that is, God.  The love of God is the extinction of all other loves and all other desires; to know God, as far as man can know him, is power, self-government, and peace.  And this is virtue, and this is blessedness.  Thus, by a formal process of demonstration, we are brought round to the old conclusions of theology; and Spinoza protests that it is no new doctrine which he is teaching, but that it is one which in various dialects has been believed from the beginning of the world.  It is a necessary consequence of the simple propositions that happiness depends on the consistency and coherency of character, and that such coherency can only be given by the knowledge of the One Being, to know whom is to know all things adequately, and to love whom is to have conquered every other inclination.  The more entirely our minds rest on Him, the more distinctly we regard all things in their relation to Him, the more we cease to be under the dominion of external things; we surrender ourselves consciously to do His will, and as living men and not as passive things we become the instruments of His power.  When the true nature and true causes of our affections become clear to us, they have no more power to influence us.  The more we understand, the less can feeling sway us; we know that all things are what they are, because they are so constituted that they could not be otherwise, and we cease to be angry with our brother, we cease to hate him; we shall not fret at disappointment, nor complain of fortune, because no such thing as fortune exists; and if we are disappointed it is better than if we had succeeded, not perhaps for ourselves, yet for the universe.  We cannot fear, when nothing can befall us except what God, wills, and we shall not violently hope when the future, whatever it be, will be the best which is possible.  Seeing all things in their place in the everlasting order, Past and Future will not affect us.  The temptation of present pleasure will not overcome the certainty of future pain, for the pain will be as sure as the pleasure, and we shall see all things under a rule of adamant.  The foolish and the ignorant are led astray by the idea of contingency, and expect to escape the just issues of their actions:  the wise man will know that each action brings with it its inevitable consequences, which even God cannot change without ceasing to be Himself.