§  20.  But  the  most  important  truth  of  Spinoza's
system,  the  truth  which  Pantheism  emphasized  with
such  commendable  persistency  is  not  one  upon  which
questions  and  doubts  can  arise.  It  is  a  truth  which,
in  the  development  of  philosophical  belief,  stands  out
in  bold  relief;  it  marks  a  well  defined  stage  in  philo-
sophic thought,  and  did  not  merely  suggest,  but  it
determined  the  trend  of  succeeding  opinion.  The
thought  to  which  we  refer  is  the  closer  bond  that
Spinoza  established  between  God  and  the  world.  As
we  have  already  pointed  out,  even  in  his  early  thinking,
Spinoza  assigned  such  a  supreme  value  to  the  concept
of  God,  and  made  the  world  so  completely  dependent


Ixxvi  INTRODUCTION

upon  His  power  and  presence,  that  Deism  was
doomed.  We  have  seen,  too,  why  it  was  that  Spinoza's
ideas  assumed  this  particular  form.  From  the  earhest
times  he  accepted  Deduction  as  the  true  method  of
determining  truth,  and  looked  to  the  concept  of  God
as  the  source  of  all  being  and  all  truth.  Thus  this
vital  connection  between  God  and  nature  becomes  a
dominant  thought  throughout  Spinoza's  reflections.
Since  to  the  end  he  was  the  devoted  champion  of  De-
duction, and  since  the  idea  of  God  increased  rather  than
decreased  in  importance,  in  the  Ethics  as  well  as  in  the
Cogitata  this  thought  remains  the  greatest,  grandest
truth  of  his  philosophy.  It  only  remains  to  see  how  it
has  appeared  and  reappeared  in  different  forms  in  suc-
ceeding years.
In  the  main  current  of  philosophic  thought  since
Spinoza's  time  the  influence  of  this  truth  of  God's
immanence  in  nature  has  been  uninterrupted.  Phi-
losophy soon  saw  how  vital  was  this  truth,  and  though
it  has  been  modified  in  form,  it  has  never  been  rejected.
