Then the splotch of colour would take its
place as part of a harmonious whole; and would give you an adequate idea
just as it does to the artist.
[Sidenote: But the Universe Is Not an Unfinished Picture.]
[Sidenote: It is an Eternal Whole, of which a Partial consideration is
Misleading.]
Now, according to Spinoza, when we see things as they appear in Infinite
Thought we have an adequate idea. But if we see only a component element
in an idea--let us say--of the divine Artist, then our idea is
inadequate.[21] Hence we misjudge things. And of the part played by bad
men in the divine Whole we certainly have no adequate idea. But here
again we must be on our guard against the abuse of illustrations. For it
is not to be inferred that Spinoza regards the Universe as an unfinished
picture, of which, the completion will justify the beginning. On the
contrary, the Universe is to him eternal, the necessary expression of
the infinite attributes of eternal Being. Still the analogy may help us.
For the concentration of attention on a single part of an ordered whole
may, quite as certainly as a glance at an unfinished work, be the
occasion of an inadequate idea. In effect, the suggestion is that if we,
like God, could contemplate the infinite Universe all at once, and have
an adequate idea thereof, in other words if we could ascend to the self
contemplation of the Eternal, we should have the bliss associated by
long habit with the words of the Psalmist: "I shall be satisfied when I
awake, with thy likeness.
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