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 Jesus, inasmuch as he was a worshipper of Nature and
Necessity, and a Pantheist. His teaching was the basis of the faith of
the new age. He was a Saint and a Heathen, seditious and pious, at the
same time.