nipresent to finite Reason. But
thou art not such as through all eternity I shall alone be able to
conceive of Being.

In the contemplation of these thy relations to me, the finite, I will
be calm and blessed. I know immediately, only what I must do. This
will I perform undisturbed and joyful, and without philosophizing.
For it is thy voice which commands me, it is the ordination of the
spiritual world-plan concerning me, and the power by which I perform
it is thy power. Whatsoever is commanded me by that voice, whatsoever
is accomplished by this power, is surely and truly good in relation to
that plan. I am calm in all the events of this world, for they occur
in thy world. Nothing can deceive, or surprise, or make me afraid, so
surely as thou livest and I behold thy life. For in thee and through
thee, O infinite One, I behold even my present world in another light!
Nature and natural consequences in the destinies and actions of free
beings, in view of thee, are empty, unmeaning words. There is no
Nature more. Thou, thou alone, art.

It no longer appears to me the aim of the present world that the
above-mentioned state of universal peace among men, and of their
unconditioned empire over the mechanism of Nature, should be brought
about merely that it may exist, but that it should be brought about
by man himself, and, since it is calculated for all, then it should be
brought about by all, as one great, free, moral community. Nothing
new and better for the individual, except through his dutiful will,
nothing new and better for the community, except through their united,
dutiful will, is the fundamental law of the great moral kingdom of
which the present life is a part.

The reason why the good-will of the individual is so often lost for
this world, is that it is only the will of the individual, and that
the will of the majority does not coincide with it; therefore it has
no consequences but those which belong to a future world. Hence, even
the passions and vices of men appear to cooeperate in the promotion of
a better state, _not in and for themselves_--in this sense good can
never come out of evil--but by furnishing a counter-poise to opposite
vices, and finally annihilating those vices and themselves by their
preponderance. Oppression could never have gained the upper hand
unless cowardice, and baseness, and mutual distrust had prepared the
way for it. It will continue to increase until it eradicates cowardice
and th