292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



while tliey surpass those of profane history, differ among them- 

 selves not only in literary merit, but in the value of the doctrines 

 they inculcate. As to the authorship of the Pentateuch, he ar- 

 rived at the conclusion that it was written long after Moses, but 

 that Moses may have written some books from which it was com- 

 piled as, for example, those which are mentioned in the Scrip- 

 tures, the Book of the Wars of God, the Book of the Covenant, 

 and the like and that the many repetitions and contradictions in 

 the various books show a lack of careful editing as well as a va- 

 riety of original sources. Spinoza then went on to throw light 

 into some other books of the Old and New Testaments, and added 

 two general statements which have proved exceedingly service- 

 able ; for they contain the germs of all modern broad church- 

 manship, and the first of them gave the formula which was des- 

 tined in our own time to save to the Anglican Church a large 

 number of her noblest sons. This was that "sacred Scripture 

 contains the Word of God, and in so far as it contains it is incor- 

 ruptible " ; the second was that " error in speculative doctrine is 

 not impious." 



Though published in various editions, the book seemed to pro- 

 duce little effect upon the world at that time, but its result to Spi- 

 noza himself was none the less serious. Though one of the most 

 religious of men his theory of the universe led Novalis to speak 

 of him as " a God-intoxicated man/' and Schleiermacher to call 

 him a " saint " he was, for this work, and for the earlier expres- 

 sion of some of the opinions it contained, abhorred as a heretic 

 both by Jews and Christians : from the synagogue he was cut off 

 by a public curse, and in the Church he was regarded as in some 

 sort a forerunner of Antichrist. For all this, he showed no re- 

 sentment, but devoted himself quietly to his studies, and to the 

 simple manual labor by which he supported himself, declined all 

 proffered honors among them a professorship at Heidelberg 

 found pleasure only in the society of a few friends as gentle and 

 affectionate as himself, and died contentedly without seeing any 

 widespread effect of his doctrine, other than the prevailing ab- 

 horrence of himself. Down to a very recent period hatred for 

 him has continued. When, about 1880, it was proposed to erect 

 a monument to him at Amsterdam, discourses were given in 

 churches and synagogues prophesying the wrath of Heaven upon 

 the city for such a profanation ; and, when the monument was 

 finished, the police were obliged to exert themselves to prevent 

 injury to the statue and to the eminent scholars who unveiled it. 



But the ideas of Spinoza at last secured recognition. They 

 had sunk deeply into the hearts and minds of various leaders of 

 thought, and, most important of all, into the heart and mind of 

 Lessing ; he brought them to bear in his treatise on the Educa- 



