Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/161

 general, in that they are all limited in their existence and in their forces, consequently more or less imperfect, while he is an unlimited spirit, or limitless, hence all-perfect.” (pp. 103 and 104.)

“God is distinguished from all other beings in general.” This false conception of God as distinguished from all other beings is apparently needed because before and many times afterward and here it says that God is limitless, and therefore it is impossible to say that the limitless can be distinguished from anything.

“In particular, all other beings: (a) are limited in the beginning and during the continuation of their existence; all of them have received their existence through God and are in constant dependence on him, and partly on each other; God does not receive his existence from anybody, and in nothing is he dependent on anybody,—he is self-existing and independent; (b) they are limited in the manner or form of their existence, for they are inevitably subject to the conditions of space and time, and so are subject to changes; God is above all conditions of space,—he is immeasurable and omnipresent,—and above all conditions of time,—he is eternal and unchangeable; (c) finally they are limited in their strength, both in quality and in quantity; but for God there are no limits even in this respect,—he is all-powerful and almighty. Thus the chief qualities which belong to God in his essence in general are: (1) unlimitedness or all-perfection, (2) self-existence, (3) independence, (4) immeasurableness and omnipresence, (5) eternity, (6) unchangeableness, and (7) almightiness.”

Then, God is distinguished from other beings in particular:

“(1) By his unlimitedness or all-perfection.” Why unlimitedness is equal to all-perfection remains unexplained, both here and elsewhere.

“(2) By his self-existence and (3) independence.” What