Page:Philosophy and Fun of Algebra.djvu/88

 CHAPTER XVII FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM had said, from the first, that the people of Israel would have to think of "I Am" as the deliverer from bondage; but they were not, at the time when he said it, advanced enough in their algebra to understand that idea properly. So he gave them, as an hypothesis to work on for the time being, that "I Am" did not like the people of Israel to eat and drink and smell un-wholesome things. He wished to make them attend to their own affairs, and think as little as possible about what was done and thought outside of their own land.

But, after the time of Elijah, there came a change. A higher kind of algebra came into use. Its incarnation was called Isaiah.

The imagination of the Hebrews broke loose from the hypothesis that "I Am" had wishes and likes about the people of Israel different from what was right for all the rest of the world. 84