作者：Annie Wood Besant 字数：12.8万字

It is the acknowledgment of a previously formed determination to believe at any cost it is a wail of helplessness the very apotheosis of despair. We cannot have history, so let us believe a fairy-tale we can discover nothing, so let us assume anything we cannot find truth, so let us take the first myth that comes to hand. Here I feel compelled to part company with the Dean, and to leave him to believe in, to adore, and to love that which he has himself designated as indistinguishable and undiscernable it may be an act of faith but it is a crucifixion of intellect it may be a satisfaction to the yearnings of the heart, but it dethrones reason and tramples it in the dust. We proceed in our study of the attributes of God. He is represented as the Supreme Will, the Supreme Intelligence, the Supreme Love. As the Supreme Will. What do we mean by "will " Surely, in the usual sense of the word, a will implies the power and the act of choosing. Two paths are open to us, and we will to walk in one rather than in the other. But can we think of power of choice in connection with God Of two courses open to us one must needs be better than the other, else they would be indistinguishable and be only one perfection implies that the higher course will always be taken what then becomes of the power of choice We choose because we are imperfect we do not know everything which bears on the matter on which we are about to exercise our will if we knew everything we should inevitably be driven in one direction, that which is the best possible course. The greater the knowledge, the more circumscribed the will the nobler the nature, the more impossible the lower course. Spinoza points out most clearly that the Divinity could not have made things otherwise than they are made, because any change in his action would imply a change in his nature God, above all, must be bound by necessity. If we believe in a God at...

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