the law, and may all ye who are obedient to the Lord your God be saved this day."

A fugitive.

1

It may be proper to add that the health of Spinoza did not fail, as soon as this dreadful ceremony was over; and that he lived nearly twenty years after it, quite as long as his poor body ever promised to last, during which years he seems to have fully carried out his one great purpose. But that malediction, like similar ones from the Head of the Romish church at dif ferent times, was not altogether an idle thunderbolt. So greatly enraged were his old associates and friends at his withdrawal from them previous to this sentence, thus showing an open contempt not only for their worship but for their power to curse him, that his life was not safe. Forgetting the words of the frightful sentence, which forbade them to come "within four cubits' length" of him, they waylaid him, with evil intent, in his nightly walks; and on one occasion, at least, the assassin's knife would have entered his neck, had he not dexterously avoided its thrust. Regard for his personal safety now compelled him to keep away from his former haunts. His own kindred even sought him but to do him harm. For the sake of their good standing with the synagogue, no doubt with true Hebrew vengeance also, they had publicly disowned him, and wrathfully denounced him. He wandered about in places where he was not known, unable to tell what death might befall him any moment; and though scorning it, yet menaced by the cloud of curses which hung over him. But he was not at all moved from his deeper plans, during the years that he led this uncertain life. He went

1 Willis, pp. 34, 35.

At school.

straightway to a physician in Amsterdam, Van den Ende by name, who was a tutor in the Latin tongue. This language was the key to the philosophy of the time, and the medium of intercourse among learned men. The Hebrew religion had forbidden Spinoza, as it did all Israelites, to know this language; yet he seems. to have already had considerable acquaintance with it, nevertheless. His object, in seeking Van den Ende, may have been to perfect himself in this, and in the Greek tongue; and also, as Willis thinks, to earn a pittance by aiding his tutor with other pupils. Another fact associated with this school greatly interests us, since it is one of the few proofs we have that there was to Spinoza's nature a deeply tender and susceptible side. Though almost nothing of an emotional nature can be found in his published writings, I suspect that no man ever felt more keenly or profoundly, on all those matters which most stir the human heart. It seems that his new professor had a daughter, as skilled as her sire in the speech of the Roman maidens; and that to her tuition this young Benedict was in some way assigned. However this may have been, it is at least certain that he came, most silently and deliciously, to be in love with his fair associate. Yet, with a true and knightly sense of honor, he kept his affection secret, waiting for the time when his prospects should be more settled. That time having come, and the young lady having had full opportunity to learn his character and peculiar religious views, he ventured to hint to her the state of his feelings and his hopes. But he met no encouragement. Had he been a member of the Papal church, a man of wealth, and a favorite in

His love.

gay society, she might not have objected. As it was, however, she preferred to cast in her lot with a young Hamburg merchant, who had the means of gratifying all her wishes for show and idle luxury. Spinoza was grieved to find that he had been offering his honorable heart to such vanity; he was astonished at himself, that he could have felt so much interest in so much selfishness and duplicity; and taking home the severe lesson, thankful that he had pressed his suit no farther, he turned away forever from love to philosophy. His susceptible nature seemed to be utterly driven in upon itself. Perhaps there never was a more absolute consecration to the search for truth, with the single fault that it was, at all events, to be a search made in his own strength; the trustworthiness of his individual intellect was not to be questioned. Disowned of kindred, his tenderness rebuffed in the first effort to speak it, he cheerfully accepted his lot; and he undertook the mighty riddle which was closing about him, with no faith in any wisdom but his own.

His purpose

All Spinoza now asked, whether of friend or formed. foe, was to be permitted to live. And of this he was pretty sure while he kept out of the way; for his wants were very few, and he had learned the art of polishing lenses for optical instruments, by which he earned small sums of money from time to time. Leibnitz praised him for his skill in this art, writing, in a letter to the young truth-seeker, "Among the honorable things which fame. has acquainted me with concerning you, I learn with no small interest that you are a clever optician." Spinoza was now, as he felt, fully able to provide for himself in the world. Independent and satisfied, determined to push his

inquiries boldly on all sides, he was careless of what any critic might say about him, and sure of supplying his few bodily needs from the earnings of spare hours. It was an instance of self-confidence hardly paralleled in the history of thinking, and which commands our admiration at least, when that student, only about twenty-five years old, departed from his native city scarcely knowing whither he went, and caring for nothing but to push the investigations of which he had taken hold. On the road between Amsterdam and Auwerkerke he found his first asylum, in a house which is said to be still standing, situated on what is called, in memory of the great thinker, Spinoza Lane.1 From this retreat he went, after about five years, to reside in Rhynsburg; whence he again removed, some four years later, till finally he took lodgings in an obscure house at the Hague.

Read's Des

cartes.

The fame of Descartes was at its zenith, during these years of Spinoza's life, the great idealist having been dead but a few years, and his enthusiastic disciples having installed his philosophy as a chief authority in the best schools of learning throughout Europe. To his works Spinoza at once turned, studying them with intense ardor, but subjecting every statement to the tests of his own consciousness and logic. Accepting the main premise, and the method of this master, he yet found much to disagree with in the structure of Cartesianism. The result of these studies was his first work, published at Amsterdam in 1663, entitled The Principles of the Philosophy of René des Cartes demonstrated by the geometrical method; to which are added

1 Willis.

The

Metaphysical Thoughts, by Benedict Spinoza.1 Thoughts, thus appended to his exposition of Descartes, contained the germs of his system of pantheism. His great work on Ethics, written subsequently, and not published till after his death, and in which we have the final embodiment of his philosophical views, grew out of this beginning. Such utterances, as we might readily infer, gave no little offence to the multitude of Cartesians; and their deep hostility was shown, at times, in ways more pointed than becoming. They abhorred the conclusions of Spinoza; and to see him grafting his system upon that of their adored master, was more than philosophy could bear. To add to their vexation they beheld the book of the new expounder and critic in the hands of almost every young student. Spinoza, though cast out from society, and exposed to death all the while, had yet succeeded in making for himself many admirers. All curious minds, whatever they might think of his religious leanings, were charmed by the boldness and novelty of his speculations. Partly that he might the better command his time, and partly to be out of the way of his implacable foes, he withdrew at length into his little room at the Hague; where fifteen years later a consumption, the seeds of which he had inherited, put an end to his solitary life. Here he exhibited many traits of character which reveal the true philosopher and claim our honest admiration.

Characteris

tics.

His unselfishness in common things was wonderful. An estate fell to him at his father's death, which his sisters denied his right to inherit, on account of his apostasy from the Hebrew faith. He there

1 Willis, p. 47.