LECTURE I. SPINOZA AND OTHER MASTERS. A singular death bed scene. ON the 22d day of February, 1677, in a small hired chamber at the Hague, while the owners of the humble dwelling were at church, it being Sunday, a physician, having seen the tenant of that lonely room heave his last breath, and hastening to depart, took to himself a little money and a silver-handled knife, which lay on the table near the dead man's body, fearing that he might receive no other fee for his medical services.1 The man whose lifeless remains were thus deserted, to await the return of his simple host and hostess, was Benedict Spinoza. Not wishing to withhold from him any honor which is justly his due, but choosing that he should be overpraised rather than disparaged, I am willing to accept as historically true, all that his most ardent disciples or friends have said of him. The eulogistic account of Mr. Lewes, in his Biographical History of Philosophy, shall be given, 1 Accounts of the death of Spinoza, as of various events in his life, do not agree. Willis (Life, Correspondence and Ethics of Spinoza, London, 1870) differs from Lewes, whom I have chiefly consulted. Colerus, pastor of the Lutheran church at the Hague, who greatly admired Spinoza, and took pains to gather up all the local memories of him, is their principal authority; though they do not hesitate to question his veracity (especially Willis) when it conflicts with their own prejudices. 2 Appleton & Co., New York, 1857, pp. 456-469. so far as my space will permit, with no tittle of abatement from its full meaning. Spinoza's parents re gees. According to this writer, Spinoza died at the ligious refu- meridian of his manhood, being but forty-four years and three months old. He was of Jewish parentage, and his father and mother resided in Amsterdam at the time of his birth. They had but recently come to this city of free Holland, escaping thither from their home in Portugal, where intolerance of the Jews would not suffer them to live. Their flight, it thus seems, was nearly in the same age, and for the same reasons, as that of the Pilgrim Fathers from England. They sought an asylum from religious oppression. This is a circumstance which should be noted, in sketching the life of Spinoza. If he had known Christianity as anything but a persecuting power, he might, upon renouncing Judaism, have embraced something better, possibly, than the dream which he himself dreamed in his solitude. But for this hereditary prejudice and hatred, which we all can understand, he might have made the choice of a Paul or a Neander. He seems, however, when he forsook the national faith, to have seen no alternative but to invent a religion of his own. His childhood. Benedict, or Baruch, as he was called before he forsook the religion of his people, is described as a remarkably active boy, though lacking in physical robustness; fond of playing, with his sisters Miriam and Rebecca, about the squares and wharfs of the city. He was remarkable for his "bright, quick, and penetrative " eyes; and for his dark hair, which floated in "luxuriant curls over his neck and shoulders." IIis father is repre His studies. son would choose the same occupation. But a passion for study which showed itself very early, together with a slender constitution, daily growing more slender through devotion to books and meditation, induced the parent to change his purpose. The beloved son, already "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," was allowed to enter upon a course of the higher Hebrew learning. He gave himself to his studies with the greatest enthusiasm, and with astonishing success; so that when he was only fourteen years old, hardly a doctor or rabbi, in the whole country, surpassed him in amount and accuracy of knowledge. Very high hopes were entertained of him, among adherents to the Jewish faith. His teacher, Saul Levi Morteira, a zealous Israelite, looked on him with feelings of pride and admiration. We may easily judge, therefore, how great were the disappointment and alarm of his friends, when they found him pushing his inquiries beyond the limits of the Old Testament and the Talmud, scattering the arguments of the rabbis with his nimble logic, and proposing to them a multitude of very plain questions which they saw it to be for their interest not to attempt to answer. nearly of his own age, are mentioned as macy at this time,' and urging him to divulge his opinions, under a pretence of discipleship; though, as he suspected, with the purpose of betraying him to the Jewish elders. He was so reticent to these young men respecting his new views, that whatever they may have at first designed, they took offence at his reserve, and reported him as one who was secretly undermining the ancient faith. Straightway he 1 Willis, pp. 31, 32. His defec tion. Two young men, courting his inti |