So
that the vision of the seer is now the suggestion to us of an infinite
and eternal Being, whose attributes by modification take the innumerable
shapes of sun, moon, and stars, and mountains and river, and tree and
flower, and bird and beast, and man. And the winds that sweep and the
floods that roll, and the rocky barriers that stand fast, and the rivers
that wind among the hills, and the trees that flourish and the living
societies that gather in fruitful places, the labourer in his vineyard,
the sailor in his ship, all are in and of the one Eternal Being. Yet we
echo not with less, but perhaps with more reverence, than the believers
in a divine artisan, the words of the Psalmist: "O Lord, how manifold
are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of
Thy riches." But if the thunder and the flaming fire and the sweeping
flood seem discordant, they existed for the Psalmist as well as for us,
and they do not seem to have troubled him. At this point, therefore, we
need only say that Spinoza's religion of one divine Substance, whose
unity in variety is holy, ought to stir within us with not less fervour,
at least the spirit of the Psalmist's concluding prayer: "Let the
sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more."
[Sidenote: Spinoza no Materialist,]
[Sidenote: Notwithstanding his Attribution of "Extension" to God.]
[Sidenote: Criticism by Sir F.
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