And when, we say that
God has this or that idea, not only so far as He constitutes the nature
of the human mind, but so far as He has the idea also of some other
thing together with the human mind, then we say that the human mind
perceives the thing in part, or inadequately." E.G. all races have
naturally supposed earthquakes and storm, battle, murder and sudden
death to present ideas identical in the minds of their gods and of
themselves. But Spinoza's suggestion, as I interpret it, is that the
true God has the idea of such things, not only so far as He constitutes
the human mind, but as He includes the ideas of some correlated things
to us inconceivable. Our idea is therefore "inadequate."]
AFTERWORD.
[Sidenote: Spinoza's Apparent Failure.]
[Sidenote: Power of Ecclesiasticism.]
[Sidenote: Identification of Moral Interests with Conventional Beliefs.]
Notwithstanding the admiration, and even reverence, with, which Spinoza
was regarded by a few scholars during his life-time, it cannot be said
that during the century following his death, in 1677, there was any wide
acceptance of his ideas. The times were not favourable. For the
political and social power of ecclesiasticism, whether established, or
unestablished, compelled men of science and philosophers to treat
dominant creeds as consecrated ground, on which ordinary methods of
research, reasoning or criticism could not be pursued.
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