prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
This Etext was created by Joseph B. Yesselman
[email protected] Please send corrections to him and also to
[email protected]
Part 1 - Chapters I to V - 1spnt10.txt Part 2 - Chapters VI to X - 2spnt10.txt Part 3 - Chapters XI to XV - 3spnt10.txt Part 4 - Chapters XVI to XX - 4spnt10.txt
Sentence Numbers, shown thus (1), have been added by volunteer.
A Theologico-Political Treatise
Part 1 - Chapters I to V
Baruch Spinoza
A Theologico-Political Treatise
Part 1 - Chapters I to V
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PREFACE. Origin and consequences of superstition.
Causes that have led the author to write.
Course of his investigation.
For what readers the treatise is designed. Submission of author to the rulers of his country.
CHAPTER I
- Of Prophecy.
Definition of prophecy.
Distinction between revelation to Moses and to the other prophets.
Between Christ and other recipients of revelation.
Ambiguity of the word "Spirit."
The different senses in which things may be referred to God.
Different senses of "Spirit of God."
Prophets perceived revelation by imagination.
CHAPTER II
- Of Prophets.
A mistake to suppose that prophecy can give knowledge of phenomena
Certainty of prophecy based on: (1) Vividness of imagination, (2) A Sign, (3) Goodness of the Prophet.
Variation of prophecy with the temperament and opinions of the individual.
CHAPTER III
- Of the Vocation of the Hebrews, and whether the Gift of Prophecy was peculiar to them.
Happiness of Hebrews did not consist in the inferiority of the Gentile.
Nor in philosophic knowledge or virtue.
But in their conduct of affairs of state and escape from political dangers.
Even this Distinction did not exist in the time of Abraham.
Testimony from the Old Testament itself to the share of the Gentiles in the law and favour of God.
Explanation of apparent discrepancy of the Epistle to the Romans.
Answer to the arguments for the eternal election of the Jews.
CHAPTER IV
- Of the Divine Law.
Laws either depend on natural necessity or on human decree. The existence of the latter not inconsistent with the former class of laws.
Divine law a kind of law founded on human decree: called Divine from its object.
Divine law: (1) universal; (2) independent of the truth of any historical narrative; (3) independent of rites and ceremonies; (4) its own reward.
Reason does not present God as a law-giver for men.
Such a conception a proof of ignorance - in Adam - in the Israelites - in Christians.
Testimony of the Scriptures in favour of reason and the rational view of the Divine.
CHAPTER V
. - Of the Ceremonial Law.
Ceremonial law of the Old Testament no part of the Divine universal law, but partial and temporary. Testimony of the prophets themselves to this Testimony of the New Testament.
How the ceremonial law tended to preserve the Hebrew kingdom.
Christian rites on a similar footing.
What part of the Scripture narratives is one bound to believe?
Authors Endnotes to the Treatise.
A Theologico-Political Treatise
Part 1 - Chapters I to V
PREFACE. (1)Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune's greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to credulity. (2) The human mind is readily swayed this way or that in times of doubt, especially when hope and fear are struggling for the mastery, though usually it is boastful, over - confident, and vain.
(3) This as a general fact I suppose everyone knows, though few, I believe, know their own nature; no one can have lived in the world without observing that most people, when in prosperity, are so over-brimming with wisdom (however inexperienced they may be), that they take every offer of advice as a personal insult, whereas in adversity they know not where to turn, but beg and pray for counsel from every passer-by. (4) No plan is then too futile, too absurd, or too fatuous for their adoption; the most frivolous causes will raise them to hope, or plunge them into despair - if anything happens during their fright which reminds them of some past good or ill, they think it portends a happy or unhappy issue, and therefore (though it may have proved abortive a hundred times before) style it a lucky or unlucky omen. (5) Anything which excites their astonishment they believe to be a portent signifying the anger of the gods or of the Supreme Being, and, mistaking superstition for religion, account it impious
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code
