And on Psalm ciii the same thing.

And on Psalm xvi.

Principles of Rabbinism:  two Messiahs.

447

Will it be said that, as men have declared that righteousness has departed the earth, they therefore knew of original sin?—­Nemo ante obitum beatus est[170]—­that is to say, they knew death to be the beginning of eternal and essential happiness?

448

[Miton] sees well that nature is corrupt, and that men are averse to virtue; but he does not know why they cannot fly higher.

449

Order.—­After Corruption to say:  “It is right that all those who are in that state should know it, both those who are content with it, and those who are not content with it; but it is not right that all should see Redemption.”

450

If we do not know ourselves to be full of pride, ambition, lust, weakness, misery, and injustice, we are indeed blind.  And if, knowing this, we do not desire deliverance, what can we say of a man...?

What, then, can we have but esteem for a religion which knows so well the defects of man, and desire for the truth of a religion which promises remedies so desirable?

451

All men naturally hate one another.  They employ lust as far as possible in the service of the public weal.  But this is only a [pretence] and a false image of love; for at bottom it is only hate.

452

To pity the unfortunate is not contrary to lust.  On the contrary, we can quite well give such evidence of friendship, and acquire the reputation of kindly feeling, without giving anything.

453

From lust men have found and extracted excellent rules of policy, morality, and justice; but in reality this vile root of man, this figmentum malum,[171] is only covered, it is not taken away.

454

Injustice.—­They have not found any other means of satisfying lust without doing injury to others.

455

Self is hateful.  You, Miton, conceal it; you do not for that reason destroy it; you are, then, always hateful.

—­No; for in acting as we do to oblige everybody, we give no more occasion for hatred of us.—­That is true, if we only hated in Self the vexation which comes to us from it.  But if I hate it because it is unjust, and because it makes itself the centre of everything, I shall always hate it.

In a word, the Self has two qualities:  it is unjust in itself since it makes itself the centre of everything; it is inconvenient to others since it would enslave them; for each Self is the enemy, and would like to be the tyrant of all others.  You take away its inconvenience, but not its injustice, and so you do not render it lovable to those who hate injustice; you render it lovable only to the unjust, who do not any longer find in it an enemy.  And thus you remain unjust, and can please only the unjust.