Spinoza was stnall in frame, lean, sickly, and for twen- ty years threatened with consumption. Hishabils were always singularly abstemious, but care and walchful- ness in regard to his diet were reipiired in his later life. Death came to him gently and unexpected. One Sun- day, in February, 1(>77, when his hosts returned home from the afiernoon services, they found him dead, and the iihysieian, in whose presence he had died, departed. He had come down stairs at noon, and had conversed freely with I hem in regard to the morning sermon which they had heard. Unseemly litigation sprang up over his remains, and after his remains were committed to the ground. Petty accounts for shaving, for furnish- ing drugs, for drawing up the inventory of his beggarly chattels, were hastily and urgently presented. His sis-
SPINOZA
937
SPINOZA
ter Bebocca, who seems to have utterly slighted him while alive, claimed the inheritance (if his effects, but refused to pay his small debts without being assured that a suri)liis would be left after this were done. All claims were paid by De Vries, of Schiedam, who seems also to have defrayed the funeral expenses. Mis pro])- erty was sold by public vendue, and brought only three hundred and ninety Horins and fourteen sous, after de- ducting some ten florins for the expenses of sale. It consisted of a meagre supply of plain clothing, two silver buckles, a few boolis and stamps, some polished glasses and implements for polishing them. lie left behind what was more than worldly wealth — the memory of a pure, simple, unambitious, modest, and innocent life, industriously employed in high and ear- nest speculation, void of offence towards God or man, except for tliat most dangerous of all offences — sincere but pernicious error in regard to tlie liighest principles and to the highest objects of human interest. What finite mind shall undertake to weigh in the balance hon- esty of motive and sincerit\' of conduct against intel- lectual delusions? Spinoza was buried with decent respect at the Hague, Feb. 25, lfi77.
II. Woi/cs. — There is inevitable perplexity and con- fusion in any attempt to enumerate the works of Spino- za with any design of exhibiting their chronological suc- cession or the development of his philosophical views. His most important [iroductions were not given to the worhl till after his death, and some have been discov- ered and edited only in recent years. But one work of any note was published by himself. Yet, before its pub- lication, his most characteristic tenets were already en- tertained by him, and were gradually moulding them- selves into shape, and receiving further development and increased precision till the very moment of his death. Taking his collected works as they are now presented to us, it is usually impossible to fix the dates at which his conclusions were reached, or to indicate the relation in time which they bear to the general body of liis doctrine. This uncertainty, however, is rendered less annoying by the remarkable consonance or consist- ency, or, rather, by tlie inflexible rigidity and dry pre- cision, of his system from its first conception to its final exposition. His Ethics constitutes his philosophy prop- er. They had been commenced before his first published work, though they were not published till after he had passed away. About the same time with their con- cepti<in was printed his first work, a summary of the Cartesian philosophy. In this the geometrical proced- ure, so characteristic of his mode of reasoning and so rigorously but provokingly emidoyed in his Ethics, is already used. Before either of these works was com- posed, be had probably written his short tractate On God, Mnn, and Happiness, which was edited for the first time ill very late years. In this recently recovered jiro- duction are already discernible the cardinal principles more fully, and in some resjiects diversely, elaborated in his later treatises. It would appear that Spinoza's philosophy revealed itself to him, in its first manifesta- tion, virtually such as it was in its ultimate realization. It is so simple in essence, though so elaborate in detail, that this may well have been so. Tliere was no elas- ticity, no nuitability, in the essential thought, and there- fore growth or serious alteration was foreign to its nat- ure. Tlie geometrical procedure was in intimate har- mony with this changeless character of principle and reasoning, and its adoption may have as readily prede- termined the philosophy as have been induced by it. Of course, under these circumstances, the chronological order of the production of the several works of Spinoza, or even of tlieir rudimentary contemplation, ceases to be of any marked philosophical import, and his chief works may be noted simply in the order of tiieir appearance. In 16()3. when Spinoza was thirty-one years of age, was issued from tlie press Renafi Des Cartes Principiorum rhilosdjihue Pars 1 et II Mitre Geomelricn I>e,monstra1a>. He had already' exchanged his Hebrew name oi Baruch
for the Latin name oi Benedict. This treatise was mere- ly a synopsis and logical presentation of the Cartesian philosophy, originally drawn up for a friend. It is no part of Ills own philosophy. Nevertheless, it is worthy of note that Sjiiiioza's metaphysical career began with a systematization of (3artesianisin,and that the geomet- rical method is emploj-ed in his earliest publication. The dawn of his peculiar dogmas may also be detected in it. In 1G70 appeared his Tr<tctalvs Theol<t;/ico-po- liticm, whicli aroused a storm of violent denunciation, and was the chief cause of his being regarded by his contem|>oraries as the prince of atheists. To this trea- tise attention was necessarily confined in his own day, as it was the only exhibition of his views offered to the public; but there was no reason for its engrossing so exclusively the consideration of the ensuing century. It is not siiriirising that polemics should have attached themselves chiefly to this work, for it is much more lev- el to the general ajiprehension than either the Ethics or the Reformation of the Understandinfj, as it deals not with the rarefied abstractions of ontology, but with the received notions in regard to prophecy, the inspiration and interpretation of the Scri|)tures, and kindred topics which lie at the foundation of revealed religion. The Tractafus Theologico-polilicns was pure and Ijold ra- ti<inalism. It was to the 17th century what Strauss's Life of Jesus has been to the 19th ; and the latter may be considered as onlj' the development of the former. It is true that genuine Spiuozism is implied in this work ; but this is not its prominent characteristic. The most obvious points, which at once (irovoked antagonism, are briefl}' indicated by Henry Oldenburg in a letter dated Nov. 15, 1G75. He specifies the confusion of (iod with nature, the rejection of the authority and worth of mir- acles, the concealment of his views of the incarnation, of the satisfaction, and of the nature of Christ. These important subjects are, however, not what is most prom- inent in the treatise, whose special purpose is expressed in its full title: .-1 Theologico-political Treatise, contain- ing Several Dissertations, in u-hich it is Shovn that the Ereedom of Philosophy is not only Compatible with the Maintenance of Piety cmd irith Public Tranquillity, but that it cannot be Violated tcithout Violatinr; at the same time both Piety and Public Tranquillity. The work was a revelation of the general movement of the century. In )Mi John Jlilton asserted the freedom of the press in his Areopaffitica ; in lG-17 Jeremy Taylor ))roduced his Liberty of Prophesy iny, advocating freedon) of relig- ious ministrations ; in 1G70 appeared Spinoza's Tracta- fus Theoloijico-politicus, urging unrestricted freedom of philosophy, and esjiecially in regard to the interpreta- tion of the Scriptures. In 1G89 Locke published the first of his Letters on Toleration, urging entire religious freedom. The closing years of the century were pre- eminently the age of the freethinkers. Spinoza's trea- tise may therefore be considered as a manifestation of the spirit of the time, not as an abnormal [ilanomenoi.. Spinoza was onh' one of a tiirong: