I. Life. — Baruch van Spinoza was born at Amster- dam, then the great commercial city of Holland, on Nov. 24, 1632. It was a strange nativity for a philos- opher. He was a q\ieer product in the land of dikes and canals, polders and docks, and in a community of money-making Dutch traders. The time, too, was a strange one for the appearance of a contemplative re- cluse. The Continent was involved in wars of religion, wars of succession, and wars of ambition. Germany was convulsed and desolated by the Thirty Years' War, which had not run out half its ilreadful course. Gusta- vus Adolphus had fallen a week or two before. Dis- cords, uproars, contentions, were abroad throughout Eu- rope. Sjnnoza was born of a pure-blooded Jewish fam- ily which had left Portugal and sought in the Nether- lands a refuge from religious persecution. His father was in comfortable circumstances, and dwelt in a good house near the Portuguese synagogue, where dealers in old clothes and junk now congregate; but the locality was then a respectable and segregated part of the city.
It was on the outskirts of the town, between the Amstel and the jiresent network of docks about the Eastern Basin. The young Israelite, "in whom there was no guile," early gave evidence of the quickness and i)ers[)i- cacity of his genius; but he was fragile in health and in frame. As he exhibited great avidity for an acquaint- ance with the Latin language, he was initiated into its mysteries, and was favored witii the instructions of Francis van den Ende, subsequently a political refugee in France, and ultimately executed in that country on the charge of treasonable practices. Van den Ende had a daughter without grace of form or feature, but cultivated, sprightl}', and intellectual, who is represented as having secured the devotions of her father's pupil. The story has been rejected as a legend, on the ground of the girl's juvenility. It is rendered nwire doubtful by the boy's'; but iiKiUtia siipplet (ftiifem. Whether true or not, there was no repetition of Abelard and Eloise. This remains the solitary charge of amatory inclinations brinight against Spinoza. From such suspicions he is even freer than Gibbon. After having acquired a compe- tent knowledge of Latin, he devoted himself to the study of theology and of Hebrew, and won the approval of the rabbi Morteira. The fruits of these studies were revealed afterwards in the Triirtatiis Theolor/ico-polili- cus. A predisposition to scepticism is supposed to have been implanted in his mind by his teacher. Van deu Ende. His theological inquiries were certaiidy not prosecuted in a submissive or credulous spirit. He had an absorbing and undivided love of truth, or what he deemed to be truth. He pursued his speculations and deductions with entire fearlessness and sincerity; he accepted their results with perfect conviction. He ac- quired a thorough knowledge of the Rabbinical litera- ture and of the Hebrew philosophers of the Middle Age, and seems to have conceived a special attachment for Maimonides. He was thus led to a thoroughly ration- alistic interpretation of the Scriptures and of the dog- mas of his hereditary creed. He accordingly contracted a repugnance to the doctrinal authority of the synagogue, and a distaste for theological investigation within the lines of jNIosaism. He turned aside from this severe mistress to the easier yoke of philosophy, which al- lowed ampler range for the divagations of his restless mind. While still undecided, he fell in with the works of Des Cartes, from which he afterwards declared him- self to have derived all his knowledge of philosophy. It was a memorable contact and a notable admission. He was particularly struck with the position of Des Cartes that nothing should be accejjted as true without sufficient reasons. This, of course, precluded any child- like and uncritical reception of the traditions of the Targum and the Cabala, and any unquestioning sub- mission to the precepts of religion, which "walks by faith, and not by sight." He became meditative, re- served, retiring, self-contained. Such he was, probably, by natural tem])erament. The mind that broods over recondite speculations, whose " thoughts wander through eternity," and whose habitual associations are with the abstract, the impalpable, and the divine, narrows its communion with men, and finds few companions to share or to welcome its abstruse deductions or imagina- tions. He withdrew himself more and more from the Jewish doctors; he rarely attended the services of the synagogue ; he became
" Parens deorum cultor et iiifrequens, Iiisauieniis dum supieutiaj C'onsultus."
The suspicions and the anger of his despised coreligion- ists were aroused. Their fanaticism was intlamed by the apprehended loss of a brilliant votary. Nor was in- dignation diminished by the fear that he purposed giv- ing his adhesion to Christianity. This he never did. He always spoke reverently and dispassionately of the New Covenant; but Christianity, as an authoritative creed, was inconsistent with the scheme of philosophy which he elaborated for himself. Spinoza belonged to
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tliai class of eminent tliinkcrs — like GroJiiis, Locke. Lcibuiiz, Kant— who were |)n>l"oini(lly nli^'ious in spir- it, but not conlined wiiliin formal tliuolo^'ical boiniila- ries. Tlie .lews were so an.xious to retain him in their j^-et SI) ilesirous of avoiiiint; the scandal of his renun- ciation of their religion— tiiat they olTered him a pen- Mon of a thousand florins to remain with them, and to attend the synaijojjue occasionally. The bribe was re- fused. It was addressed to a spirit never mercenary, nuil more likely to be repelled than attracted by pecun- larv temptations. As he couUl not be seduced by ^Min. an attempt was made to remove him jiermanent- Iv out of the way. As he came from the theatre or from the old Portuguese synagogue — for the accounts difler — an attemjU was made to assassinate him. lie preserved the vestments wjiich had been pierced by the murderer's dagger,