" Nevertheless of pain we
have no explanation. Pain is not lessened by understanding it, nor is
its mystery penetrated if we see that to God material could not have
been wanting for the creation of men or animals who have to endure it
all their lives. But if Spinoza is silent in the presence of pain, so
also is every religion and philosophy which the world has seen. Silence
is the only conclusion of the Book of Job, and patient fortitude in the
hope of future enlightenment is the conclusion of Christianity.
It is a weak mistake, however, to put aside what religions and
philosophies tell us because it is insufficient. To Job it is not
revealed why suffering is apportioned so unequally or why it exists, but
the answer of the Almighty from the whirlwind he cannot dispute, and
although Spinoza has nothing more to say about pain than he says in the
passages just quoted and was certainly not exempt from it himself, it
may be impossible that any man should hate God.
We now come to the final propositions of the Ethic, those in which
Spinoza declares his belief in the eternity of mind.
Pages:
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57