Part 43 - Mr. Melamed and Spinoza

In one respect Mr. Melamed has been less than just to Spinoza. There is a note of derision in the phrases 1167 Katha-upanishad , I. 6. 1168 Brihadaranyaka-upanishad , I. 4. 10. 1169 Bhagavad-gita, XVIII. 66. Also XVIII. 64; XVIII. 65 ; XVIII. 56-57; IX. 29.

828 " " INTRODUCTION " " Consumptive Jew," Epileptic Jew," Sickly Jew," Lonely Jew", "Lonely Dutch Jew" "Lonely Jew of Amsterdam," that we find interspersed through his volume. At one or two points, he comes very near blaming the Jew for his birth (see pp. 22, 23, 30, 31 and et passim). Yet he was the Jew of whom Matthew Arnold wrote: "Spinoza led a life perhaps the most spotless to be found in the lives of philosophers; he lived simply, studious, even-tempered, kind, declining honours, declining riches, declining notoriety. Therefore, he has been in a certain sphere edifying, and has inspired in many powerful minds an interested admiraration such as no other philosopher has inspired since Plato. In my father's house are many mansions, only, to reach any one of these mansions, there are needed the wings of a genuine sacred transport, of an immortal longing. These wings Spinoza had, and because he had them his own language about himself, about his aspirations, and course are true, his foot is in the vera vita, his eye on the beatific vision." Of him, Renan declared at the dedication of a statue to him at the Hague, in 1882: "Woe to him who in passing should hurl an insult at this gentle and pensive head! He would be punished, as all vulgar souls are punish. ed, by his very vulgarity, and by his incapacity to conceive what is divine. This man, from his granite pedestal, will point out to all men the way of blessedness which he found; and ages hence, the cultivated traveller, passing by this spot, will say in his heart: 'The truest vision ever had of God came, perhaps, here.'" Earlier than Renan, Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) had said that "the only life with which that of Spinoza can be compared is the life of Jesus Christ."