ion of the vortex in
the ether may perhaps help us to a glimpse of Spinoza's notion when he
speaks of a "res singularis in actu" a creature of individual functions.
For to him man was, as it were, an infinitesimal vortex in a phase or
attribute of the divine Substance. The analogy, like all other
analogies, would not bear being pressed. But it does suggest to us a
picture of finite individuality in action or function, subordinated to
unity with infinite Substance. If it be said that such an explanation
would necessarily include the conscious life of beasts and birds, the
answer would seem to be, that admitting this to be the case, yet in man
the divine idea of individuality is more fully expressed and has more of
reality than in any lower creature.

[Sidenote: Moral Difficulties.]

Man, then, according to Spinoza, is in God and of God. But what are we
to say of bad men, the vile, the base, the liar, the murderer? Are they
also in God and of God? Spinoza does not blench. Yes, they are. But here
comes in his doctrine of "adequate" and "inadequate ideas." Thus, if you
see the colour red it completely expresses itself. It cannot be defined
and needs no explanation.[20] As it is in the Infinite Thought so it is
in ours. We have an "adequate idea" of it. But now if you see on an
artist's canvas a splotch of red and blue and yellow, part of a work
only begun, it gives you no adequate idea. True, you have an adequate
idea of each several colour, but not of their relations to the work
conceived. To get that you would have to enter into the mind of the
artist and see as he sees. 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
cont