It is a reality in God: it IS God: there is nothing more
to be thought or said of God than the affirmation of such realities as
these. The "relation to the idea of God" means that in the affirmation
He is affirmed. "Nothing," that is to say, no reality "can be conceived
without God."
But it is possible for the word "love" to be applied to the relationship
between man and God. He who has a clear and adequate perception passes
to greater perfection, and therefore rejoices. Joy, accompanied with
the idea of a cause, is love. By the fourteenth proposition this joy is
accompanied by the idea of God as its cause, and therefore love to God
follows. The demonstration seems formal, and we ask ourselves, What is
the actual emotion which Spinoza describes? It is not new to him, for
in the Short Treatise, which is an early sketch for the Ethic, he thus
writes:- "Hence it follows incontrovertibly that it is knowledge which
is the cause of love, so that when we learn to know God in this way, we
must necessarily unite ourselves to Him, for He cannot be known, nor can
he reveal Himself, save as that which is supremely great and good.
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