Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/86

 of a weak and slight kind. The modern antithesis of finite and infinite is just that of Ahriman and Ormazd—it is just the same Manicheism as we have here.

From the moment that we take the finite as independent, so that the infinite and finite stand opposite to one another in such a way that the infinite has no part with the finite, and the finite cannot pass over to the infinite, then that is the same thing as this dualism, only that when we so conceive of the relation, we have not the intention of forming, nor the heart to form a conception of these opposites in accordance with their entire content.

The finite when, in its further determination, it asserts itself as finite over against the infinite, the Universal, and in so doing declares itself opposed to the infinite, is the Evil. We find accordingly that some stop short at this standpoint, which is marked by an utter absence of thought, and in accordance with which a valid existence is allowed both to the finite and the infinite. But God is only one principle, one power, and the finite, and for that very reason Evil, has no true independent existence.

But further, Good, by virtue of its universality, has moreover a natural mode of determinate existence, a mode of existence for an Other, namely, Light, which is pure manifestation. As the Good, that which is self-identical or commensurate with itself, is subjectivity in its pure identity with itself in the spiritual sphere, so is Light this abstract subjectivity in the sensuous sphere. Space and time are the primary abstractions in the sphere of externality or mutual exclusion, but the concrete physical element in its universality is Light. If, therefore, the essentially Good, because of its abstract character, comes to have the form of immediateness, and consequently of naturalness (for immediateness is the natural), then this immediate Goodness, which has not as yet purified itself and raised itself to the form of absolute spirituality, is Light. For Light is in the natural world