Having My Way

15

THE REVEALING SELF

Example is the school of mankind; they will learn at no other.

—EDMUND BURKE

It took Spinoza, a philosopher of three centuries ago, to awaken me to the startling fact that all of my writings, lectures, expressions of likes and dislikes, tell far more about me than they do about the subjects to which I address myself. It was a shock to realize that I reveal the kind of person I am more than I convey the ideas I intend! And you, whatever your rank or status, are rarely an exception to this rule.

The awakening line was this: “Paul’s idea of Peter tells us more about Paul than about Peter.” Indeed, plausible! But this was the clincher: “The prophets’ ideas about God tell us more about the prophets than about God.”1 Emerson echoed this idea when he remarked: “What you are speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say!”

Two commentaries are warranted: (1) a briefing of Spinoza’s philosophy that we may understand what led him to this conclusion and (2) the valuable instruction to be deduced that we may embrace and follow it. Conceded, I am including Spinoza as one of the rare exceptions to the rule being explored.

Goethe, one of the brilliant minds of our time, acknowledged that Spinoza was the only philosopher with whom he had no disagreement.2 My favorite Goethe quotation, which I have twice cited already, is pure Spinoza:

Nature understands no jesting; she is always true, always serious, always severe; she is always right, and the errors and faults are always those of man. The man incapable of appreciating her she despises, and only to the apt, the pure, and the true, does she resign herself and reveal her secrets.

Spinoza used the terms God and Nature interchangeably. He rejected the common idea of an anthropomorphic deity, viewing God, rather, as the immutable universal laws which man is powerless to alter. “Nothing finite is self-sufficient, only the infinite can be truly substantial and the separate things of existence and life are but aspects of infinite divinity. . . . In order to fulfill one’s destiny it is necessary to seek understanding of the workings of the universe, to accommodate one’s self as best one can to the infinite plan, and to participate in it. [It is] realizing the self as part of the unlimited.”3 (Italics added)

True, Spinoza is one of those rare exceptions to the rule in question. Nonetheless, his recorded insights tell far more about him than they tell about the eternal verities he attempted to explain.

Return to the prophets. What, for instance, did they with their finite minds know of infinite divinity—God or Nature? True, they experienced many enlightenments but, relative to the infinite unknown, their glimmerings were no more than wee candles. The point to note is this: they told us a great deal more about themselves and their thinking than about God. Similarly, what does any Paul know of any Peter? Substantially nothing! Indeed, no one—Paul and Peter included—gains more than a smattering of his own makeup and being. Paul, in his assessment of Peter, reveals far more about Paul than about Peter!

In a word, one’s messages are viewed not so much for their subject matter, as is commonly thought, but far more for what they reveal of the writer or speaker. He is being looked at, sized up, assessed. The reader or listener, even though he may not realize it, is trying to discover what kind of a person Paul was, you are, I am.

What am I to make of this discovery? Should it dampen or enliven my spirit and efforts? Frankly, I have seldom come upon a more encouraging guideline. Why this exuberance? My answer: In writing this, for instance, it is I, far more than my explanations, that will be revealed. Is this not an incentive to put the best foot forward, to present openly and honestly one’s highest thoughts? Indeed, an incentive par excellence!

Have a look at this from the usual and negative angle. Reflect on the countless people who are commenting angrily on “the mess we are in,” the name callers, those who are throwing in the sponge, giving up the ghost. Actually, they reveal only themselves; they do nothing to enlighten us about our personal and societal troubles. Carefully examine your own assessments in the light of Spinoza’s observation and note how correct it is.

Anyone who grasps this simple point cannot help but turn himself toward man’s most important role: examplarity, that is, to do all within his power to strive for the best he can possibly attain. Imagine a citizenry so oriented! Were enough of us suddenly to thus aim our thoughts, words, actions we could, possibly, expect to turn the world around in eighty days! It is, as Spinoza asserts, “realizing the self as part of the unlimited.”

Edmund Burke phrased a great truth: “Example is the school of mankind; they will learn at no other.” Exemplarity in its purest form is contagious, for all gains in the higher realms of thought are caught, not taught.

How describe those rare occasions when you or I go beyond sizing up another, taking his measure, so to speak? At what point does exemplarity become contagious? In my own case, it is when someone’s attainment reaches unusually attractive heights still within my sights. It is when another is deemed to be much above my level, whose thoughts I can look up to. This is when I go beyond assessing his person and try instead to partake of his enlightenment. It is a fair wager that this holds true for you also. Thank you, Baruch de Spinoza, for a valuable lesson!

• 1See “The New Science and The New Faith” by Dr. Donald Hatch Andrews, The Freeman, April 1961.
• 2Ibid.
• 3Father Joseph, a devout Capuchin monk and chief advisor to Cardinal Richelieu, believed that the political ascendency of France was the way to bring God to humanity. For an interesting account of this arrogance—the end justifies the means—see Grey Eminence by Aldous Huxley (New York: Harper & Bros., 1941).