Spencer Heath Archive

Item 428

Taping by Spencer MacCallum from conversation with Heath

1954-1955?

Spinoza had a very meaningful phrase, saying, we should see things sub specie aeternitatis, meaning in their timeless or their eternal aspects and not merely with refer­ence to the day or the hour and the immediate situation or experience.

“Well what does that mean?”

Well that means that this writer about the betrayal of Yalta is dealing with the transitory, the water that is over the dam, and not with those principles that abide always among us.

“As any scientist does…”

Yes — as, for example, natural scientists do, and as does also religion in its authentic manifestations.

“Meaning when it is performed spontaneously and not as a code?”

When it has functional substance and not mere form. For the forms of religion can be grafted on anything, even upon wars — by bishops consecrating them.