THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY2 The Lives and Opinions

is6 THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY
of events for them; so the Jews gave a miraculous interpretation of the
lengthening of the day in order to impress others (and perhaps themselves)
with the conviction that the Jews were the favorites of God: and
24
similar incidents abound in the early history of every people. Sober
and literal statements do not move the soul; if Moses had said that it
was merely the East wind (as we gather from a later passage) that cleared
a path for them through the Red Sea, it would have made little impression
on the minds of the masses he was leading. Again, the apostles re-
sorted to miracle stories for the same reason that they resorted to parables;
it was a necessary adaptation to the public mind. The greater influence
of such men as compared with philosophers and scientists is largely at-
tributable to the vivid and metaphorical forms of speech which the
founders of religion, by the nature of their mission and their own emo-
tional intensity, are driven to adopt.
Interpreted on this principle, the Bible, says Spinoza, contains nothing
contrary to reason. 25 But interpreted literally, it is full of errors, contradictions,
and obvious impossibilities as that the Pentateuch was written
by Moses. The more philosophical interpretation reveals, through the
mist of allegory and poetry, the profound thought of great thinkers and
leaders, and makes intelligible the persistence of the Bible and its immeasurable
influence upon men. Both interpretations have a proper
place and function: the people will always demand a religion phrased in
imagery and haloed with the supernatural; if one such form of faith is
destroyed they will create another. But the philosopher knows that God
and nature are one being, acting by necessity and according to invariable
law; it is this 26
majestic Law which he will reverence and obey. He knows
that in the Scriptures "God is described as a law-giver or prince, and
styled just, merciful, etc., merely in concession to the understanding of
the people and their imperfect knowledge; that in reality God acts . . .
by the necessity of his nature, and his decree . . . are eternal truths." 27
Spinoza makes no separation between Old and New Testament, and
looks upon the Jewish and the Christian religion as one, when popular
hatred and misunderstandings are laid aside, and philosophical interpretation
finds the hidden core and essence of the rival faiths. "I have often
wondered that persons who make boast of professing the Christian religion
namely, love, joy, peace, temperance, and charity to all men
should quarrel with such rancorous animosity, and display daily toward
one another such bitter hatred, that this, rather than the virtues which
they profess, is the readiest criterion of their faith." 28 The Jews have
survived chiefly because of Christian hatred of them; persecution gave
them the unity and solidarity necessary for continued racial existence;
without persecution they might have mingled and married with the
peoples of Europe, and been engulfed in the majorities with which they
*Ibid. ^Introd. *Ch. 5. ^Ch. 4. ^Gh. 6.