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which was destined 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
incorruptible"; the second was, that "error in speculative doctrine is
not impious."

Though published in various editions, the book seemed to produce little
effect upon the world at that time; but its result to Spinoza himself
was none the less serious. Though so deeply religious that Novalis
spoke of him as "a God-intoxicated man," and Schleiermacher called him a
"saint," he had been, for the earlier expression 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 by the Church he was
now regarded as in some sort a forerunner of Antichrist. For all this,
he showed no resentment, but devoted himself quietly to his studies, and
to the simple manual labour by which he supported himself; declined
all proffered honours, 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 abhorrence of himself.

Perhaps in all the seventeenth century there was no man whom Jesus of
Nazareth would have more deeply loved, and no life which he would have
more warmly approved; yet down to a very recent period this hatred for
Spinoza 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 Education of the World, as well as
in his drama, Nathan the Wise, and both these works have spoken with
power to every generation since.

In France, also, came the same healthful evolution of thought. For
generations scholars had known that multitudes of errors had crept into
the sacred text. Robert Stephens had found over two thousand variations
in