This
doctrine, therefore, besides giving repose in every way to the soul, has
also this advantage, that it teaches us in what our highest happiness or
blessedness consists, namely, in the knowledge of God alone, by which we
are drawn to do those things only which love and piety persuade." {42a}
In other words, being part of the whole, the grandeur and office of the
whole are ours. We are anxious about what we call "personality," but in
truth there is nothing in it of any worth, and the less we care for it
the more "blessed" we are.
"By the desire which springs from reason we follow good directly and
avoid evil indirectly" {42b}: our aim should be the good; in obtaining
that we are delivered from evil. To the same purpose is the conclusion
of the fifth book of the Ethic that "No one delights in blessedness
because he has restrained his affects, but, on the contrary, the power
of restraining his lusts springs from blessedness itself." {43a} This
is exactly what the Gospel says to the Law.
Fear is not the motive of a free man to do what is good.
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