BENEDICTUS
de SPINOZA
(1632?
-1677)
R.
H. M. Elwes's 1883 Introduction
to his Translation of Spinoza's
Books I & II
Introduction—Purpose
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Electronic Texts - The Letters
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JBY Notes:
1, The text is Elwes's Introduction, Bk.I:Page v, written in 1883.
2. Page numbers given
refer to Book I except where otherwise
noted.
3. JBY added the Paragraph Numbers.
4. [Curley's
Book VIII comment or note]
]Shirley's
Book XIII translation variance, comment,
or endnote[
<Parkinson's
Book XV endnote>
{JBY
comment or endnote}
LINKS
6. Please report errors,
clarification requests, disagreement,
or suggestions
to josephb@yesselman.com.
7. Other Spinoza biographies.
8. For notes and schedule of letters see " The Letters".
Introduction
Original unpopularity of Spinoza's writings, their gradually
increasing influence in Germany, France, Holland, and England
Authorities for the life of Spinoza: Colerus,
Birth, 1634, and education of Spinoza
His breach with the synagogue, 1656
Life near Amsterdam and at Rhijnsburg
Friendship with Simon de Vries
Removal to Voorburg and the Hague
Correspondence with Oldenburg, Leibnitz, Tschirnhausen, and
others. Publication of Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, 1670
Massacre of the De Witts, 1672. Indignation and danger of Spinoza
Completion of the Ethics, 1674
Death and burial, February, 1677
Sketch of Spinoza's philosophy
{Spinoza's Dictum}
{The Foundation Rock upon which Spinoza's philosophy
stands: [37].
Simply Posit:
ONE—1D6.}
{The Highest
Good is to know G-D. WHY?}
Bk.II:page
v - Elwes's Introduction.
[1] A very few years ago { before the 1880's } the writings of Graetz
Spinoza were almost unknown in this country {England}. The only
authorities to which the English reader could be referred were the
brilliant essays of Mr. Froude, (v:1) and Mr. Matthew Arnold, (v:2),
the graphic but somewhat misleading sketch in Lewes's "History of
Philosophy," and the unsatisfactory volume of Dr. R. Willis (v:3).
But in 1880 Mr. Pollock brought out his most valuable "Spinoza, His EL:Feuer:11651
Life and Philosophy," (v:4) likely long to remain the standard work on
the subject; Dr. Martineau has followed with a sympathetic and
gracefully written "Study of Spinoza;" Professor Knight has edited
a volume of Spinozistic Essays by Continental Philosophers;
page VI Auerbach's biographical novel (vi:1) has been translated,
and many writers have made contributions to the subject in
magazines and reviews.
[2] At first
sight this stir of tardy recognition may seem less surpris-
ing than the preceding apathy, for history can show few figures
more remarkable than the solitary thinker of Amsterdam. But the
causes which kept Spinoza in comparative obscurity are not very
far to seek. Personally he shrank with almost womanly sensitive-
ness from anything like notoriety: his chief work was withheld till
after his death, and then published anonymously; his treatise on
Religion was also put forth in secret, and he disclaims with evident
sincerity all desire to found a school, or give his name to a sect.
Bk.XIB:1992.
[3] Again, the
form in which his
principal work is cast is such as to Spinozism
{dabbler}
repel those dilettante
readers, whose suffrage is
necessary for a
widely-extended reputation; none but genuine students would care
to grapple with the serried array of definitions, axioms, and proposi-
tions, of which "The Ethics", {Bk.I}, is composed, while the display of
geometric accuracy flatters the careless into supposing, that the
whole structure is interdependent, and that, when a single breach
has been effected, the entire fabric
has been demolished.
[4] The matter,
no less than the manner, of Spinoza's
writings was
such as to preclude popularity. He genuinely shocked his contemp- Graetz's Censure
oraries. Advances in thought are tolerated in proportion as they
respond to and, as it were, kindle into flame ideas which are already
smouldering obscurely in many minds. A teacher may deepen,
modify, transfigure what he finds, but he must not attempt radical Mark Twain
reconstruction. In the seventeenth
century all men's deepest con-
{religious}
victions were inseparably bound up
with anthropomorphic
notions Spinoza's
Daring
of the Deity; Spinoza, in attacking these latter and endeavouring to
substitute the conception page
VII of
eternal and necessary
law, Chain
of Natural Events
{
and civil }
seemed to be striking at
the very roots of moral ^ order:
hence with
curious irony his works, which few read and still fewer understood,
became associated with notions
of monstrous impiety, and
their
author, who loved virtue with
single-hearted and saintly devotion,
was branded as a railer against God and a subverter of morality,
whom it was a shame even to speak of. Those from whom juster
views might have been expected
swelled the popular cry. The
Bk.XIB:230,
23089.
Cartesians
sought to confirm their own precarious
reputation for
orthodoxy by emphatic disavowals of their more daring associate.
Leibnitz, who had known Spinoza personally, speaks of him,
whether from jealousy or some more avowable motive, in tones
of consistent depreciation.
[5] The torrent
of abuse, which poured forth from the theologians
and their allies, served to overwhelm the ethical and metaphysical
aspect of Spinoza's teaching. The philosopher was hidden behind Spinoza's Daring
the arch-heretic. Throughout almost the whole of the century
following his death, he is spoken of in terms displaying complete
misapprehension of his importance and scope. The grossly inac-
curate account given by Bayle in the "Dictionnaire Philosophique"
was accepted as sufficient. The only symptom of a following is
found in the religious
sect of Hattemists,
which based some of its
Bk.XIB:229.
doctrines on an imperfect understanding
of the so-called mystic
passages in "The Ethics". The first real recognition came from
Lessing, who found in Spinoza a strength and solace he sought in
vain elsewhere, though he never accepted the system as a whole.
His conversation with Jacobi (1780), a diligent though hostile stu-
dent of the
Ethics, may be said to mark
the beginning of a new
epoch in the history of Spinozism.
Attention once attracted
was
never again withdrawn, and received a powerful impulse from
Goethe, who more than once confessed his indebtedness to the
Ethics, which indeed is abundantly page VIII evident throughout his
writings. Schleiermacher
paid an eloquent tribute to "the
holy, the
Bk.III:261.
rejected Spinoza."
Novalis
celebrated him as
"the man intoxicated Wolf,
Cambridge:762
Bk.XIV:1:298,
2:348.
with Deity
" (der Gottvertrunkene Mann), and Heine
for once forgot
Durant13a:640
to sneer, as he recounted his life. The brilliant novelist, Auerbach,
has not only translated his complete works, but has also made his
history the subject of a biographical romance. Among German
philosophers Kant
is, perhaps,
the last, who shows no traces of
Spinozism.
Hegel has
declared, that "to
be a philosopher one must
first be a Spinozist." In recent years a new impulse has been given
to the study of
the Ethics
by their curious harmony with
the last
{cosmological}
results of physiological
research. Damasio—Biological
{1883}
[6]
In France Spinoza has till lately been viewed as a disciple
and
Bk.III:211;
Bk.XIB:23090.
perverter of Descartes.
M. Emile Saisset
prefixed to his translation Damasio—Pineal
Gland
of the philosopher's chief works a critical introduction written from
this standpoint. Since the scientific study of philosophic systems
has begun among the French, M. Paul Janet has written on Spinoza
as a link in the chain of the history of thought; a new translation of
his complete works has been started, and M. Renan has delivered
a discourse on him at the bicentenary of his death celebrated at the
[7]
In Holland there has also been a revival
of interest in the illustri-
ous Dutch thinker. Professors Van Vloten and Land were mainly
instrumental in procuring the erection of a statue to his memory,
and are now engaged in a fine edition of his works, of which the
first volume has appeared (viii:1). In England, as before said, the
interest in Spinoza has till recently been slight. The controversial-
ists of the eighteenth century, with the exception of Toland, passed
him by as unworthy of serious study. The first recognition of his
true character came probably from Germany through Coleridge,
who in his desultory way expressed enthusiastic admiration, page IX
and recorded his opinion (in a pencil note to a passage in Schelling),
that the Ethics, the Novum Organum, and the Critique of Pure
Reason were the three greatest works written since the introduction
of Christianity. The influence of Spinoza has been traced by Mr.
Pollock in Wordsworth, and it is on record that Shelley not only
contemplated but began a translation of the Tractatus Theologico-
Politicus, to be published with a preface by Lord Byron, but the
project was cut short by his death. It is said that George Eliot left
behind her at her decease a MS. translation of the Ethics.
[8] It may
strike those who are strangers to Spinoza
as curious,
that, notwithstanding the severely abstract nature of his method,
so many poets and imaginative writers should be found among his
adherents. Lessing, Goethe, Heine, Auerbach, Coleridge, Shelley,
George Eliot; most of these not only admired him, but studied him
deeply. On closer approach the apparent anomaly vanishes.
There is about Spinoza a power and a charm, which appeals strong-
ly to the poetic sense. He seems to dwell among heights, which
most men see only in far off, momentary glimpses. The world of
men is spread out before him, the workings of the human heart lie
bared to his gaze, but he does not fall to weeping, or to laughter,
or to reviling: his thoughts are ever with the eternal, and something
of the beauty and calm of eternal things has passed into his teach-
ing. If we may, as he himself was wont to do, interpret spiritually a
Bible legend, we may say of him that, like Moses returning from
Sinai, he bears in his presence the witness that he has held
[9] The main
authority for the facts of Spinoza's life is a short
biog-
Bk.XII:409; Bk.XIB:381.
raphy by Johannes
Colerus (Kohler) (ix:1),
Lutheran page
X pastor
at the Hague, who occupied the lodgings formerly tenanted by the
philosopher. The orthodox
Christian felt
a genuine abhorrence
Bk.XIX:25344,
45, & 46.
for the doctrines, which he
regarded as atheistic,
but was honest
enough to recognize the stainless purity of their author's character.
He sets forth what he has to say with a quaint directness in
admirable keeping with the outward simplicity of the life he depicts.
[10] Further
authentic information is obtainable
from passing
notices in the works of Leibnitz, and from Spinoza's published cor-
respondence, though the editors of the latter have suppressed all
that appeared to them of merely personal interest. There is also a
biography attributed to Lucas,
physician at the Hague
(1712), but
{formal
or elaborate praise}
this is merely a confused
panegyric, and is
often at variance with
more trustworthy records. Additional details may be gleaned from
Bayle's; hostile and inaccurate article in the "Dictionnaire Philoso-
phique;" from S. Kortholt's preface to the second edition (1700) of
his father's book
"De
tribus impostoribus magnis:"
and, lastly, from
Bk.XIB:142,143;Bk.XX:315-18.
the recollections of
Colonel Stoupe (1673), an
officer in the Swiss
service, who had met the philosopher at Utrecht, but does not
contribute much to our knowledge.
[11] Baruch
de Spinoza was born
in Amsterdam Nov.
24, 1634?.
His parents were Portuguese, or
possibly Spanish Jews, who had
Bk.XX:2,
3.
sought a refuge in the Netherlands from the rigours of the
Inquisition
in the Peninsula. Though nothing positive is known of them, they
appear to have been in easy circumstances, and certainly bestowed
on their only son—their other two children being girls—a thorough
education according to the notions
of their time and sect. At the
Bk.XIB:3063.
Jewish High School, under the
guidance of Morteira, a learned
Bk.XIB:612,
16, 820,
& 1326.
Talmudist,
and possibly of the brilliant
page XI
Manasseh
Ben Israel,
who afterwards (1655) was employed to petition from Cromwell
the readmission of the Jews
to England, the young Spinoza was
instructed in the learning of
the Hebrews,
the mysteries of the
Bk.XIII:342381
Talmud
and the Cabbala,
the text of the
{Hebrew Bible},
and the
commentaries of Ibn Ezra and Maimonides. Readers of the Tracta-
tus Theologico-Politicus
will be able to appreciate
the use made
of this early training. Besides
such severer studies, Spinoza was,
in obedience to Rabbinical
tradition, made acquainted with a manual
Bk.XIB:4316,
238118.
trade, that of lens polishing,
and gained a knowledge of French,
Italian, and German; Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew were almost
his native tongues, but curiously
enough, as we learn from
one of
{LT:L32(19):331
}
his lately discovered letters, (xi:1)
he wrote Dutch with difficulty.
Latin was not included in the Jewish curriculum, being tainted with
the suspicion of heterodoxy, but Spinoza, feeling probably that it
was the key to much of the world's best knowledge, set himself to
learn it (xi:2);
first, with the aid of a German master, afterwards at
Bk.XIB:1938—Bk.XII:414.
the house of Francis Van den Ende, a physician.
It is probably from
Bk.XIB:2041.^
a Lucianist—"deploying the hermeneutics..."
the latter that he gained the sound knowledge
of physical science,
which so largely leavened
his philosophy; and, no doubt, he at this
Bk.III:211.
time began the study of Descartes,
whose reputation towered above
the learned world of the period.
[12] Colerus
relates that Van den Ende had a
daughter, Clara
Maria, who instructed her father's pupils in Latin and music during
his absence. "She
was none of the page
XII most beautiful,
but she
Bk.XII:414.
had a great deal
of wit," and as the story runs displayed her saga-
city by rejecting the proffered
love of Spinoza for the sake of his
Bk.XX:108,
1848,
195, 293.
fellow-pupil Kerkering, who was able to
enhance his attractions by
the gift of a costly pearl necklace. It is certain that Van den Ende's
daughter and Kerkering were married in 1671, but the tradition of
the previous love affair accords
ill with ascertained dates. Clara
Bk.XIB:220,
22174—Bk.XII:414.
Maria was only seven years
old when Spinoza left her father's
house, and sixteen when he left the neighbourhood.
[13] Meanwhile
the brilliant Jewish student was overtaken by that
mental crisis, which has come over so many lesser men before and
since. The creed of his fathers was found unequal to the strain of
his own wider knowledge and changed spiritual needs. The Hebrew
faith with its immemorial antiquity, its unbroken traditions, its myriads
of martyrs, could appeal to an authority which no other religion has
equalled, and Spinoza, as we
know from a passage
in one of his
{ EL:L74(76):417
}
letters (xii:1), felt the
claim to the full. We may be
sure that the
gentle and reserved youth was in no haste to obtrude his altered
views, but the time arrived
when they could no longer be with
honesty concealed. The Jewish doctors
were exasperated at the
defection of their most promising
pupil, and endeavoured to retain
{Bk.XII:416—From
Colerus}
him
in their communion by the offer of
a yearly pension of 1,000
florins. Such overtures were of course rejected. Sterner measures
were then resorted to. It is even related, on excellent authority, that
Spinoza's life was attempted as
he was coming out
of the Portu-
guese synagogue. Be this as it may,
he fled from Amsterdam, and
Bk.XIB:2454,
55, 2961;
Bk.XX:2306.
{
Will Durant
- scroll
was (1656)
formally excommunicated
and anathematized according down about
10%
to III Excommunication
}
to the rites of the Jewish church.
Bk.XIB:2246,
48—Bk.XII:416,
425.
[14] Thus isolated
from his kindred, he sought more congenial soci-
Bk.XIB:22988,
253.
ety among the dissenting community of Collegiants,
page XIII a
body
of men who without priests or set forms of worship carried out the
precepts of simple piety.
He passed some time in the house of one
Bk.XX:146
{map}.
of that body, not far from Amsterdam, on the Ouwerkerk road,
and in
1660 or the following year removed with his friend to the head quar-
ters of the sect at Rhijnsburg, near Leyden, where the memory of his
sojourn is still preserved in the name "Spinoza Lane." His separa-
tion from Judaism was marked
by his substituting for his name
Bk.XII:415.
Baruch the Latin equivalent Benedict, but he never received
baptism
or formally joined any Christian sect. Only once again does his
family come into the record
of his life. On the death of his father,
Bk.XIB:22071—Bk.XII:422.
his sisters endeavoured to deprive
him of his share of the inheri-
tance on the ground that he was an outcast and heretic. Spinoza
resisted their claim by law, but on gaining his suit yielded up to them
all they had demanded except one bed.
[15] Skill in
polishing lenses gave him sufficient money
for his
scanty needs, and he acquired a reputation as an optician before
he became known as a philosopher. It was in this capacity that
he was consulted by Leibnitz (xiii:1). His only contribution to
the science was a short treatise on the rainbow, printed posthu-
mously in 1687. This was long regarded as lost, but has, in our
own time, been recovered and reprinted by Dr. Van Vloten.
[16] Spinoza also drew,
for amusement, portraits of his friends with
Bk.XII:418.
ink or charcoal. Colerus
possessed "a whole book of such draughts,
amongst which there were some heads of several considerable
persons, who were known to him, or had occasion to visit him,"
and also a portrait of the philosopher himself in the costume of
Masaniello.
[17] So remarkable
a man could hardly remain obscure, and we
have no reason to suppose that Spinoza shrank from social inter-
course. Though in the last
years of his life his page
XIV habits were
Bk.XX:349.
somewhat solitary, this may be
set down to failing health, poverty,
and the pressure of uncompleted work. He was never a professed
ascetic, and probably, in the earlier years of his separation from
Judaism, was the centre of an admiring and affectionate circle of
friends. In his letters he frequently states that visitors leave him no
time for correspondence, and the tone, in which he was addressed
by comparative strangers,
shows that he enjoyed considerable
reputation and respect. Before
the appearance of the Tractatus
Theologico-Politicus,
he had published nothing which could
shock
the susceptibilities
of Christians, and he was known to be a com-
Bk.XX:170—eudaimonia.
plete master of Cartesianism
then regarded as the consummation
and crown of learning. It
is recorded that a society of young men
used to hold meetings in Amsterdam for the discussion of philosoph-
ical problems, and that Spinoza contributed papers as material
for their debates (xiv:1).
Possibly the MS. treatise " On
God, Man,
{ Blessedness—Elwes's
translation }
and
his Well-Being,"
which has been re-discovered in two
Dutch Wolf
{ ^ For translation and commentary by
Curley see Bk.VIII:46 }
copies during our own time, may be referred to this period.
It is of no
{ ^ 1883 }
philosophic value compared with the Ethics,
but is interesting histori-
cally as throwing light on the growth of Spinoza's mind and his early
relations to Cartesianism.
[18] Oblivion
has long since settled down over this little
band of
questioners, but a touching record
has been preserved of one of
Bk.XX:213,
261, 262.
their number, Simon
de Vries, who figures in Spinoza's correspond-
ence. He had often, we are told, wished to bestow gifts of money
on his friend and master, but these had always been declined.
During the illness which preceded his early death, he expressed
a desire to make the philosopher his heir. This again was declined,
and he was prevailed on by Spinoza to reduce the bequest to a
small annuity, and to leave the bulk of his property page XV to his
family. When he had passed away his brother fixed the pension
at 600 florins, but Spinoza declared the sum excessive, and refused
to accept more than 300 florins, which were punctually paid him till
his death.
[19] Besides this instruction
by correspondence, for which he seems
to have demanded no payment ("mischief," as one of his biogra-
phers puts it, "could be had from him for nothing"), Spinoza at least
in one instance received into his house a private pupil (xv:1) gener-
ally identified with one Albert Burgh, who became a convert to Rome
in 1675, and took that occasion to admonish his ex-tutor in a strain
of contemptuous pity (xv:2). Probably to this youth were dictated
"The
principles of Cartesianism geometrically
demonstrated,"
which Spinoza was induced by his friends to publish,
with the addi-
{ E5:L29(12):317
}
tion of some metaphysical
reflections, in 1663 (xv:3). Lewis Meyer,
Letter:3320[34]
Bk.XX:171,
172, 403.
a physician of Amsterdam, and one of Spinoza's
intimates, saw the
book through the press, and supplied a preface. Its author does
not appear to have attached any importance to the treatise, which
he regarded merely as likely to pave the way for the reception of
more original work. It is interesting as an example of the method
afterwards employed in the Ethics, used to support propositions not
accepted by their expounder. It also shows that Spinoza thoroughly
understood the system he rejected.
Note[20]
[20] In the
same year the philosopher removed from Rhijnsburg
to
Bk.XIB:4419,
20—TL:L30(17):325,
Neff.
Voorburg, a suburb of the Hague,
and in 1670
to the Hague
itself,
^ Bk.XIB:605—Bk.XII:418.
where he lived
till his death in 1677, lodging first in the house (after-
wards tenanted by Colerus) of the widow Van Velden, and subse-
quently with Van der Spijk, page XVI a painter. He was very likely
led to leave Rhijnsburg by his increasing reputation and a desire
for educated society. By
this time he was well known in Holland,
Bk.XIB:21;
Bk.XX:407.
and counted among his friends, John
de Witt,
who is said to have
consulted him on affairs of state.
Nor was his fame confined to his
Bk.XIB:5137—Bk.XIII:185.
native country. Henry
Oldenburg, the first secretary
of the newly-
^ Bk.XX:404.
established Royal
Society of England, had visited him at Rhijnsburg,
introduced possibly by Huyghens, and had invited
him to carry on a
{LT:L01(01):275
}
correspondence
(xvi:1), in terms of affectionate intimacy.
Oldenburg
was rather active-minded than able, never really understood or sym-
pathized with Spinoza's standpoint,
and was thoroughly shocked
{ EL:L19(68):296
}
(xvi:2) at the appearance of the
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus,
but
he was the intimate friend of Robert Boyle, and kept his correspond-
ent acquainted with the progress
of science in England. Later on
Bk.XIB:239123.
(1671), Leibnitz
consulted Spinoza on a question of practical optics
(xvi:3), and in 1676, Ludwig von Tschirnhausen, a Bohemian noble-
man, known in the history of mathematical science, contributed
some pertinent criticisms on the Ethics, then circulated in MS (xvi:4).
[21]
Amusing testimonies to Spinoza's reputation are afforded by the
{ LT:L31(18):327
}
volunteered effusions of Blyenbergh (xvi:5),
and the artless question-
ings of the believer in ghosts (xvi:6).
[22] In 1670,
the Tractatus
Theologico-Politicus was published
anonymously, with the name
of a fictitious
printer at Hamburg.
{Bk.XIB:143,
257.}
It naturally produced
a storm of angry controversy.
It was,
in 1674, formally prohibited by the States-General, and, as a matter
of course, was placed on the Index by the Romish Church. Perhaps
few books have been page XVII more often "refuted," or less seriously
damaged by the ordeal. Its author displayed his disinclination to
disturb the faith of the unlearned by preventing during his lifetime the EL:L19(68):296
appearance of the book in the vernacular.
Bk.XIB:136.
[23] In 1672,
men's thoughts were for a time diverted from theologi-
Bk.XX:106,
292.
cal controversy by the French invasion
of the Netherlands, and the
Bk.XIB:1383.
consequent outbreak of domestic faction.
The shameful massacre
of the brothers De Witt by an infatuated mob brought Spinoza into
close and painful contact with
the passions seething round him.
Bk.XIB:1385.
For once his philosophic calm
was broken: he was only by force
prevented from rushing forth into the streets at the peril of his life,
and proclaiming his abhorrence of the crime.
[24] Shortly
afterwards, when the head-quarters of
the French
Bk.XIB:141—Bk.XII:422,
423.
army were
at Utrecht, Spinoza was sent for by the Prince de Conde,
who wished to make his acquaintance. On his arrival at the camp,
however, he found that the Prince was absent; and, after waiting a
few days, returned home without having seen him. The philoso-
pher's French entertainers
held out hopes of a pension
from
Bk.XIB:141—Bk.XII:423.
Louis XIV., if a book were dedicated
to that monarch; but these
overtures were declined.
Bk.XIB:14212—Bk.XII:423.
[25] On his arrival
at the Hague,
Spinoza was exposed to consider-
able danger from the excited populace, who suspected
him of being
Bk.XIB:14516—Bk.XII:37.
a spy. The calm, which had
failed him on the murder of his friend,
remained unruffled by the peril threatening himself. He told his
landlord, who was in dread of the house being sacked, that, if the
mob showed any signs of violence, he would go out and speak to
them in person, though they should
serve him as they had served
Bk.XII:424.
the unhappy De Witts.
"I am
a good republican," he Added,
"and
have never had
any aim but the welfare and
good of the State."
Bk.XIB:142.
L53, 54:373
Bk.XIB:146—Bk.XII:424.
[26] In 1673,
Spinoza was offered by the Elector Palatine, page
XVIII
Charles Lewis (xviii:1), a professorship of philosophy at Heidelberg,
but declined it (xviii:2), on the plea that teaching would interfere with
his original work, and that doctrinal restrictions, however slight,
would prove irksome.
[27] In the following
year {1674}, the
Ethics were finished and circu-
lated in MS. among their author's friends. Spinoza made a journey
to Amsterdam for the purpose of publishing them, but changed his
intention on learning that they would probably meet with a stormy
reception {EL:L19:296, EL:L20:297}. Perhaps failing health strengthened
his natural desire for peace, and considerations of personal renown
never had any weight with him.
[28] To this
closing period
belong the details as to Spinoza's
{Bk.XII:409}
manner of life collected by Colerus.
They are best given in
the biog-
rapher's simple words, as rendered
in the contemporary English
Bk.XX:26356—Bk.XII:419.
version: "It
is scarce credible how sober and frugal he was.
Not
that he was reduced to so great a poverty, as not to be able to
spend more, if he had been willing. He had friends enough, who
offered him their
purses, and all manner
of assistance; but he was
{Bk.XII:419}
naturally very sober,
and would be
satisfied with little."
His food
apparently cost him but a few pence a day, and he drank hardly any
wine. "He was often invited to eat with his friends, but chose rather
to live upon what he had at home, though it were never so little,
than to sit down to a good table at the expense of another man. . . .
He was very careful to cast up his accounts every quarter; which he
did, that he might spend neither more nor less than what he could
spend every year. And he would say sometimes to the people of
the house, that
he was like the serpent, who forms a circle with his
Bk.XIB:14724—Bk.XII:419.
tail in his mouth, to denote
that he had nothing left at the year's end.
He added, that
he designed to lay up no more money than what
{Bk.XII:419.
}
would be necessary
for him to have a decent burying. . . page
XIX
He was of a middle size; he had good features in his face, the skin
somewhat black; black curled hair; long eye brows, and of the same
colour, so that one might easily know by his looks that he was
descended from Portuguese Jews. . . . If he was very frugal in his
way of living, his conversation was also very sweet and easy. He
knew admirably well how to be master of his passions: he was never
seen very melancholy, nor very merry. . . . He was besides very
courteous and obliging.
He would very often discourse with his
{Bk.XII:420.
}
landlady, especially when
she lay in, and with the people of the
house, when they happened to be sick or afflicted: he never failed,
then, to comfort them, and exhort them to bear with patience those
evils which God assigned to them as a lot. He put the children in
mind of going often to church, and taught them to be obedient and
dutiful to their parents. When the people of the house came from
church, he would often ask them what they, had learned, and what
they remembered
of the sermon. He had a
great esteem for
Bk.XIB:237111,
112—Bk.XII:420.
Dr.
Cordes, my predecessor, who was a learned and good-natured
man, and of an exemplary life, which gave occasion to Spinoza to
praise him very often:
nay, he went sometimes to hear him preach.
. . It happened one
day that his landlady asked him whether he
believed she could be saved in the religion she professed. He J. Thomas Cook
answered: 'Your religion is a very good one; you need not look for Mark Twain
another, nor doubt that you
may be saved in it,
provided, whilst you
{Bk.XII:421.}
apply yourself to piety,
you live at the same time a peaceable and
quiet life."
[29] His amusements
were very simple: talking on ordinary matters
Bk.XX:26357—Bk.XII:421.
with the people of the house;
smoking now and again
a pipe of
tobacco; watching the habits and quarrels
of insects; making obser-
Bk.XIB:252154.
vations with a microscope—such
were his pastimes in the hours
which he could spare from his philosophy. But the greater part of
his day was taken up with severe mental work in his own room.
Sometimes page XX he would become so absorbed, that he would
remain alone for two or three days together, his meals being carried
up to him.
[30] Spinoza
had never been robust, and had for more than twenty
{pulmonary
tuberculosis; consumption}
years been suffering from
phthisis, a malady
which, at any rate in
those days, never allowed its
victims to escape. The end came
Bk.XX:349.
quite suddenly and quietly, in
February, 1677. On Saturday,
the
20th, after the landlord and his wife had returned from church,
Spinoza spent some time with them in conversation, and smoked
a pipe of tobacco, but went to
bed early. Apparently, he had pre-
{ E5:L29(12):317
}
viously sent for his friend and physician,
Lewis Meyer, who arrived
on Sunday morning. On the 21st, Spinoza, came down as usual,
and partook of some food at the mid-day meal. In the afternoon,
the physician stayed alone with his patient, the rest going to church.
But when the landlord and his wife returned, they were startled with
the news that the philosopher had expired about three o'clock.
Lewis Meyer returned to Amsterdam that same evening.
[31] Thus passed
away all that was mortal of Spinoza. If we have
read his character aright, his last hours were comforted with the
thought, not so much that he had raised for himself an imperishable Perpetuation
monument, as that he had pointed out to mankind a sure path to
happiness and peace, {PcM}. Perhaps, with this glorious vision,
there mingled the more tender feeling, that, among the simple folk
with whom he lived, his memory would for a few brief years be
cherished with reverence and love.
[32] The funeral
took place on the 25th February, "being
attended
by many illustrious persons, and followed by six coaches." The
estate left behind him by the philosopher was very scanty.
Rebekah
Bk.XIB:22071—Bk.XII:442.
Bk.XX:351.
de Spinoza, sister of the deceased,
put in a claim as his heir; but
abandoned it on finding that, after the payment of expenses, little or
nothing would remain.
page XXI
[33] The
MSS., which were found in Spinoza's
desk, were, in
Bk.XIB:4522,
23—Bk.XII:441.
accordance with his wishes, forwarded
to John Rieuwertz, a pub-
Bk.XIB:198;Bk.XX:349.^
lisher of Amsterdam,
and were that same year brought out by Lewis
Bk.XIB:2019.
Meyer, and another of the philosopher's
friends, under the title,
"B. D. S. Opera Posthuma." They consisted of
