Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/162

 difference there is between self-existence and independence again remains unexplained. Self-existence is explained as follows:

“God is called self-existent because he does not owe his existence to any other being, but has his existence, and everything else which he has, from himself.”

His independence is explained on p. 110 as follows:

“Under the name of independence in God we understand a quality by force of which he is in his essence and forces and actions determined only by himself and not by anything external, and he is self-satisfied (αὐτάρκης, ἀνενδεής), self-willed (αὐτεξούσιος), self-ruled (αὐτοκράτης),—this property of God results from the preceding. If God is a self-existent being and everything he has he has through himself, that means that he is not dependent on anybody, at least not in his existence and powers.” (p. 110.)

Thus, in the first attribute of unlimitedness there is attached to it, for some reason, the idea of all-perfection (an unused and badly compounded word), which from its composition has an entirely different meaning from unlimitedness. But the words “self-existence” and “independence,” which, according to the definition of the author himself, express the identical idea, are separated.

(4) Immeasurableness, which is only a synonym of unlimitedness, is suddenly combined into one with omnipresence, which has nothing in common with that idea. Then:

(5) Eternity and (6) unchangeableness are again separated, though they form one idea, for changeableness takes place only in time, and time is only the consequence of changeableness.

(7) Almightiness, which is defined by the concept of unlimited force, though neither before nor later will there be anything said about force. But that is far from being all. We must remember that after the disclosure of the essence of God in himself (Art. 17,