philosophy for a reconciliation
of these with the orderly procedure of nature. His philosophy will
receive its form from its illumination of life, and it will be an
ethical or religious philosophy. Spinoza, the great seventeenth-century
philosopher who justified mysticism after the manner of
mathematics,[153:4] displays this temper in his philosophy:

"After experience had taught me that all the usual
surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that
none of the objects of my fears contained in themselves
anything either good or bad, except in so far as the mind is
affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether there
might be some real good having power to communicate itself,
which would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of all
else: whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the
discovery and attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous,
supreme, and unending happiness."[153:5]

In pursuance of this aim, though he deals with the problem of being in
the rigorous logical fashion of his day, the final words of his great
work are, "Of Human Freedom":

"Whereas the wise man, in so far as he is regarded as such, is
scarcely at all disturbed in spirit, but, being conscious of
himself, and of God, and of things, by a certain eternal
necessity, never ceases to be, but always possesses true
acquiescence of his spirit. If the way which I have pointed
out as leading to this result seems exceedingly hard, it may
nevertheless be discovered. Needs must it be hard, since it is
so seldom found. How would it be possible if salvation were
ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found,
that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things
excellent are as difficult as they are rare."[154:6]

[Sidenote: Philosophy as the Extension of Science.]

Sect. 58. On the other hand, one who looks to philosophy for the
extension and correction of scientific knowledge will be primarily
interested in the philosophical definition of ultimate conceptions, and
in the method wherewith such a definition is obtained. Thus the
philosophy of the scientist will tend to be logical and metaphysical.
Such is the case with Descartes and Leibniz, who are nevertheless
intimately related to Spinoza in the historical development of
philosophy.

"Several years have now elapsed," says the former, "s