variance, it will be well to cite an example.  (63) Such an one
is not very far to seek.  (64) The city of Amsterdam reaps the
fruit of this freedom in its own great prosperity and in the
admiration of all other people.  (65) For in this most
flourishing state, and most splendid city, men of every
nation and religion live together in the greatest harmony,
and ask no questions before trusting their goods to a fellow-
citizen, save whether he be rich or poor, and whether he
generally acts honestly, or the reverse.  (20:66) His religion
and sect is considered of no importance: for it has no effect
before the judges in gaining or losing a cause, and there is no
sect so despised that its followers, provided that they harm no
one, pay every man his due, and live uprightly, are deprived of
the protection of the magisterial authority.

(20:67) On the other hand, when the religious controversy
between Remonstrants and Counter-Remonstrants began to be
taken up by politicians and the States, it grew into a schism,
and abundantly showed that laws dealing with religion and
seeking to settle its controversies are much more calculated
to irritate than to reform, and that they give rise to extreme
licence: further, it was seen that schisms do not originate
in a love of truth, which is a source of courtesy and
gentleness, but rather in an inordinate desire for supremacy.
(20:68) From all these considerations it is clearer than the sun
at noonday, that the true schismatics are those who condemn
other men's writings, and seditiously stir up the quarrelsome
masses against their authors, rather than those authors
themselves, who generally write only for the learned, and appeal
solely to reason.  (20:69) In fact, the real disturbers of the peace
are those who, in a free state, seek to curtail the liberty of
judgment which they are unable to tyrannize over.

(20:70) I have thus shown:-

I.    (20:71) That it is impossible to deprive men of the liberty
      of saying what they think. 
II.  (20:72) That such liberty can be conceded to every man without
     injury to the rights and authority of the sovereign power, and that
     every man may retain it without injury to such rights, provided
     that he does not presume upon it to the extent of introducing
     any new rights into the state, or acting in any way contrary,
     to the existing laws.
III. (20:73) That every man may enjoy this liberty without detriment
     to the public peace, and that no inconveniences arise therefrom
     which cannot easily be checked.
IV.  (20:74) That every man may enjoy it without injury to his
     allegiance.
V.   (20:75)That laws dealing with speculative problems are entirely      useless.
VI.  (20:76) Lastly, that not only may such liberty be granted
     without prejudice to the public peace, to loyalty, and to
     the rights of rulers, but that it is even necessary for their
     preservation.

(20:77) For when people try to take it away, and bring to trial,
not only the acts which alone are capable of offending, but also
the opinions of mankind, they only succeed in surrounding their
victims with an appearance of martyrdom, and raise feelings of
pity and revenge rather than of terror.  (78) Uprightness and
good faith are thus corrupted, flatterers and traitors are
encouraged, and sectarians triumph, inasmuch as concessions have
been made to their animosity, and they have gained the state
sanction for the doctrines of which they are the interpreters.
(20:79) Hence they arrogate to themselves the state authority
and rights, and do not scruple to assert that they have been
directly chosen by God, and that their laws are Divine, whereas
the laws of the state are human, and should therefore yield
obedience to the laws of God - in other words, to their own laws.
(20:80) Everyone must see that this is not a state of affairs
conducive to public welfare.  (81) Wherefore, as we have shown
in Chapter XVIII., the safest way for a state is to lay down
the rule that religion is comprised solely in the exercise of
charity and justice, and that the rights of rulers in sacred,
no less than in secular matters, should merely have to do with
actions, but that every man should think what he likes and say
what he thinks.

(20:82) I have thus fulfilled the task I set myself in this
treatise.  [20:5] (83) It remains only to call attention to the
fact that I have written nothing which I do not most willingly
submit to the examination and approval of my country's rulers;
and that I am willing to retract anything which they shall
decide to be repugnant to the laws, or prejudicial to the public
good.  (84) I know that I am a man, and as a man liable to error,
but against error I have taken scrupulous care, and have striven
to keep in entire accordance with the laws of my country, with
loyalty, and with morality. 

End of Part 4 of 4.

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[AUTHOR'S ENDNOTES] TO THE THEOLOGICO-POLITICAL TREATISE

CHAPTER XVI. 

[Endnote 26] (1) "No one can honestly promise to forego the right
which he has over all things."  (2) In the state of social life,
where general right determines what is good or evil, stratagem is
rightly distinguished as of two kinds, good and evil.  (3) But in