His  final  philosophy,  if  by  such  a  name  may  be  called  the
negation  of  all  philosophy,  was  universal  relativism,  in  which
he  found,  not  joy,  but  precarious  rest  and  a  sort  of  weary
peace.  "  The  edifice  of  the  ancient  world  rested  on  the  belief
in  the  Absolute.  Religion,  politics,  morals,  literature,  every-
thing bore  the  mark  of  this  notion.  There  was  then  neither
doubt  in  the  minds  nor  hesitation  in  the  acts  :  every  one  knew
how  to  decide.  One  knew  of  two  causes  only  in  the  world,
God's  and  the  Devil's  ;  of  two  camps  among  men,  the  good
and  the  wicked ;  of  two  places  in  eternity,  on  the  right  hand
and  on  the  left  of  the  Judge.  Truth  was  all  on  one  side,  error
all  on  the  other.  To-day,  nothing  for  us  is  truth  or  error:
we  must  find  other  words.  We  see  everywhere  nothing  but
shades  and  degrees.  We  admit  even  the  identity  of  contraries.
We  no  longer  know  religion,  but  religions ;  ethics,  but
customs ;  principles,  but  facts.  We  explain  everything,  and
as  it  has  been  said,  the  intellect  approves  in  the  end  whatever
it  is  able  to  explain.  Modern  virtue  is  all  summed  up  in
toleration,  that  is  to  say  in  a  disposition  which  our  ancestors
would  have  considered  as  the  worst  sign  of  weakness  or  treason.
