Its pretensions
to an intellectual superiority are in general quite illusory. For
Hellenism, for the thinking side in man as distinguished from the acting
side, the attitude of mind of Protestantism towards the Bible in no
respect differs from the attitude of mind of Catholicism towards the
Church. The mental habit of him who imagines that Balaam's ass spoke, in
no respect differs from the mental habit of him who imagines that a
Madonna of wood or stone winked; and the one, who says that God's Church
makes him believe what he believes, and the other, who says that God's
Word makes him believe what he believes, are for the philosopher
perfectly alike in not really and truly knowing, when they say _God's
Church_ and _God's Word_, what it is they say, or whereof they affirm.
In the sixteenth century, therefore, Hellenism re-entered the world,
and again stood in presence of Hebraism,--a Hebraism renewed and purged.
Now, it has not been enough observed, how, in the seventeenth century, a
fate befell Hellenism in some respects analogous to that which befell it
at the commencement of our era.
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