BENEDICT DE SPINOZA. 



449 



And he conjures Spinoza by the bond of their 

 friendship, by every duty of increasing and 

 spreading abroad the truth, not to withhold the 

 publication, or, if he indeed has grave reasons for 

 withholding it, at least to write and explain them. 1 

 Oldenburg was a sincere friend to Spinoza, and a 

 person worthy of all respect ; but one cannot 

 help observing that it is extremely easy for a 

 man to be thus valiant in counsel when he does 

 not risk anything on his own part. When Olden- 

 burg in later years became better acquainted with 

 Spinoza's results, he was himself not a little taken 

 aback. Now, in spite of answers which were not 

 encouraging, Oldenburg returned again and again 

 to the charge; he would never desist till his re- 

 quest was satisfied ; meanwhile it would be the 

 the greatest possible favor if Spinoza would give 

 him some summary of the contents of the treatise. 

 All this while Spinoza and Boyle were holding a 

 scientific correspondence on chemistry and pneu- 

 matics in the form of long messages contained in 

 the letters between Spinoza and Oldenburg, though 

 they seem to have exchanged nothing directly. 

 There is no doubt that Boyle knew a good deal 

 of Spinoza, and took much interest in his work. 

 In 1665 Oldenburg writes, "Mr. Boyle and I 

 often talk of you and of your learning and phi- 

 losophy." Boyle is also mentioned as joining in 

 Oldenburg's exhortations to Spinoza to persevere 

 in philosophical research. We find allusions in 

 Oldenburg's letters of this time to the miseries of 

 the plague and of the war between England and 

 Holland. A certain book about which Spinoza 

 had asked has not yet reached England " because 

 the plague has almost put an end to all communi- 

 cation, besides which this fearful war brings a 

 very Iliad of mischiefs (nonnisi malorum Iliada) 

 in its train, and is like to leave but little civility 

 in the world.'' He adds that, though the meetings 

 of the Royal Society are suspended, Boyle and 

 others go on working in private. 



After 1665 there is an unexplained break of 

 ten years in this correspondence, which is but 

 imperfectly supplied by letters between Spinoza 

 and other persons. 



The most interesting of Spinoza's other cor- 

 respondents is Simon de Vries. He was a man 

 younger than Spinoza, his pupil in philosophy, 

 and of much promise. He died in his master's 

 lifetime, having shown his gratitude by material 

 benefactions, so far as he was allowed. Once he 

 offered Spinoza a present of 2,000 florins; this 

 was declined. He was unmarried, and it was his 

 intention to make + vill leaving the bulk of his 

 ip. VIII. 



65 



property to Spinoza. But Spinoza, knowing that 

 Simon de Vries had a brother living, pressed on 

 him the duty of thinking first of his own kindred, 

 so that De Vries finally made the brother his 

 heir, and charged his estate with an annuity of 

 500 florins to Spinoza. After his death Spinoza 

 would not entirely accept even this ; when the 

 annuity came to be paid in due course, he refused 

 to take more than 300 florins, which he said was 

 quite enough for him. The letters between Spi- 

 noza and his young friend belong to the year 

 1663, and throw light both on Spinoza's manner 

 of life and on the growth of his philosophical 

 system. They show that the leading definitions 

 and propositions of the first part of the " Ethics " 

 were already sketched out in MS., and were in 

 the hands of several of Spinoza's friends, who had 

 formed a kind of philosophical club at Amster- 

 dam, and held regular meetings for the study and 

 discussion of the work. De Vries was commis- 

 sioned, it seems, to write to Spinoza for the expla- 

 nation of such points as remained obscure to the 

 company. He says, in the same letter : 



"At times I complain of my fate in being so far 

 from you. Happy, most happy is the companion 

 who dwells with you under the same roof, and who 

 can at all times, dining, supping, or walking, hold 

 discourse witb you of the most excellent mat- 

 ters ! " » 



Spinoza willingly gave the desired explanations, 

 and replied thus to the complaint : 



" You need not envy my fellow-lodger. There 

 is no one I like less, or witb whom I have been 

 more cautious ; so that I must warn you and all our 

 friends not to communicate my doctrines to him 

 till he has come to riper years. He is still too 

 childish and inconstant, and cares more for nov- 

 elty than truth. Still I hope he will amend these 

 youthful failings some years bence ; indeed, so far 

 as I can guess from his disposition, I am pretty 

 sure of it ; and so his general character moves me 

 to be friendly with him." s 



It is worth observing that these and other let- 

 ters of the same time, such as the very impor- 

 tant one to Dr. Meyer, in which the notions of 

 space, time, and infinity, are discussed, show that 

 as early as 1663 Spinoza's philosophy was fully 

 formed as to its main features. This at once 

 fixes the permissible limits of any speculation 

 upon the growth of Spinoza's ideas, which may 

 be founded on a comparison of his earlier and 



1 Ep. XXVI., a. I use Anerbach's notation for 

 references to the lately-discovered letters and parts 

 of letters. 



2 Ep. XXVII., a. These two letters are for the 

 ime given in full in Van Vlotou's " Supplement." 



