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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



mental idea from his philosophy — which he also 

 marred in the borrowing — without the slightest 

 acknowledgment. The letter now in question 

 begins thus : 



"Among your other titles to fame," he says, " I 

 understand that you have excellent skill in optics. 

 To you, therefore, I have chosen to send this at- 

 tempt of mine for what it may be worth, as on this 

 subject it would be difficult to find abetter critic." 



The friends who were best acquainted with 

 his work believe that if he had lived longer he 

 would have made some important addition to the 

 science. 1 As it was, Spinoza's " excellent skill in 

 optics " was only indirectly useful for the advance- 

 ment of knowledge by affording him the means of 

 cultivating philosophy. On the death of his father, 

 indeed, he became entitled to share with his two 

 sisters an inheritance of some value. The sisters» 

 imagining, as it is conjectured, that the excom- 

 munication had deprived him of civil rights, en- 

 deavored to exclude him from his share. Spinoza 

 was of opinion, as we know from his writings, that 

 in a country where just laws prevail it is every 

 citizen's duty to resist injustice to himself for the 

 sake of the common weal, lest, peradventure, evil 

 men find profit in their evil-doing. He now acted 

 on this principle, and asserted his rights before 

 the law with success. Having done this, however, 

 he declined to profit by them, and when the divis- 

 ion came to be effected he gave up everything to 

 his sisters but one bed, which he kept as a visible 

 symbol of the established justice of his claim. 



We know little of Spinoza's movements with 

 certainty till the end of 1660 or beginning of 1661, 

 when we find him at Rhijnsburg, a village near 

 the mouth of the Rhine not far from Leyden. 

 Thence he paid frequent visits to the Hague, 

 where he increased his acquaintance with men of 

 learning and eminence. This society must have 

 had growing attractions for him as time went on, 

 for in 1664 he moved to Voorburg, which is al- 

 most a suburb of the Hague, and finally about 

 1670 to the Hague itself. The greater part of 

 what we know of his doings in after-years is de- 

 rived from the selection of his letters which was 

 made — with a far too sparing hand, unfortunately 

 — by the editors of his posthumous works. The 

 series of letters begins in 1661 : the most impor- 

 tant of Spinoza's correspondents, and also the 

 most interesting to Englishmen, is nenry Olden- 



1 The only scientific work left by him was a small 

 treatise on the rainbow. It was supposed to have been 

 lost, but it was, in fact, published at the Hague in 1687 

 (Van der Linde. BiMiogrqfie, No. 36), and has recently 

 been discovered and republished in Van Vloten-s 

 " Supplement." 



burg. Oldenburg spent the best part of his time 

 in this country, where he settled in 1653. He 

 was acquainted with Milton, and was the intimate 

 friend of Robert Boyle ; he shared Boyle's scien- 

 tific tastes, and was the first secretary to the 

 Royal Society (1662), and editor of its " Trans- 

 actions." His friendship with Spinoza was al- 

 ready of long standing at the time now in ques- 

 tion ; he had lately visited Spinoza at Rhijnsburg, 

 and the letters are a sort of continuation of the 

 philosophical conversation they had then held. 

 The first of Spinoza's answers to him contains a 

 characteristic point : " It is not my way," he says, 

 " to expose the mistakes of others." A thorough- 

 ly constructive habit of mind, an almost insuper- 

 able aversion to enter on criticism for criticism's 

 sake, runs through the whole of Spinoza's philo- 

 sophical work. 



In 1662 Oldenburg strongly advises Spinoza 

 not to hesitate about publishing some work re- 

 lating partly to theology, partly to philosophy, 

 which means presumably the " Tractatus Theo- 

 logico-Politicus." 



"I would by all means advise you not to be- 

 grudge to men of letters the ripe fruits of your in- 

 genuity and learning in philosophy and theology, 

 but let them go forth into the world, notwithstand- 

 ing any possible grumbling from petty theologians. 

 Your commonwealth is most free [Oldenburg was 

 writing from England] ; and therein the philoso- 

 pher should work most freely. . . . Come then, 

 my friend, cast out all fear of stirring up the feebler 

 folk of our time against you ; we have sacrificed 

 enough to their ignorance and trifling scruples ; let 

 us spread our sails to the wind of true knowledge, 

 and search out the secrets of Nature more thor- 

 oughly than has yet been done. In Holland I 

 should think it will be quite safe to print your 

 treatise, and there is no reason to fear its giving 

 the least offense, among men of learning at any 

 rate. If such are your promoters and patrons — and 

 such, I answer for it, you will find — why should 

 you fear the detraction of the ignorant ? " > 



In the following year Oldenburg was again 

 pressing Spinoza to finish and publish a little 

 book on "The Amendment of the Understand- 

 ing," of which we now have only a fragment, 

 published among the " Opera Posthuma." 



" Surely, my excellent friend, I believe nothing 

 can be published more pleasant or acceptable to 

 men of true learning and discernment than a trea- 

 tise such as yours. This is what a man of your 

 wit and genius should regard, more than what 

 pleases theologians, as their manner now is ; they 

 care less for truth than for their own advantage." 



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