642 



.SPINOLA 



SPINOZA 



drawing power of the carriage is exercised most on 

 the thickest portions of the yarn, and thus twisting 

 and drawing so compensate each other that yarn of 

 great regularity is produced. When the carriage 

 reaches its full stretch the yarn is completely spun, 

 and in returning towards the frame the separate 

 strands are lowered BO that thev are wound around 

 the cope by their rotation. Then the operations 

 are repeated, and go on doing to perhaps 200 

 strands of yarn by mechanical agency precisely the 

 series of ojierations which for ages mankind with a 

 single spindle did for a single strand of yarn viz. 

 drawing out, twisting, and ultimately winding up 

 the finished yarn. Previous to the invention of 

 'the mule few spinners could make yarn of 200 

 hanks to the pound (the hank being always 840 

 yards). At the same time the natives of India 

 were weaving yarn of numbers ranging between 

 300 and 400 (i.e. 400 hanks to the pound). Now, 

 however, our manufacturers have reached such 

 extraordinary perfection that Manchester spinners 

 have made f}o. 700, which was woven by a French 

 firm. No. 10,000, a pound of which would reach 

 4770 miles, has been made to test machinery. 



Spinola. AMBROSIO, MARQUIS OF, one of the 

 greatest captains of his time, was born at Genoa in 

 1571. With his younger brother Frederick, already 

 a soldier of fortune under Philip III. of Spain, he 

 raised in 1602 a force of 9000 men, whom he main- 

 tained, like the old condottieri, at his own expense. 

 In the same year he entered the Netherlands, 

 serving at lirst under Mendoza. His first exploit 

 was the reduction of Ostend, which the Archduke 

 All>ert had been besieging for more than two years. 

 This spread his reputation over Europe, and led 

 to his being placed at the head of the whole 

 Spanish and Italian troops in the Netherlands. 

 Now began a long struggle with Prince Maurice 

 of Nassau, in which neither could gain any decided 

 advantage over the other. The destruction of the 

 Spanish fleet near Gibraltar induced the court of 

 Madrid to conclude in 1609 an armistice for twelve 

 years. At ito termination the war l>egan anew, 

 mid Spinola found himself once more pitched 

 against his great opponent, who, however, died 

 before the walls of Breda of a marsh-fever caught 

 during his attempts to raise the siege. The town 

 opened its gates in the May of 1625, after having 

 sustained a siege of ten months. This was Spinola s 

 last achievement, his health now obliging him to 

 resign the command. He had spent his whole 

 fortune in the maintenance of his troops, but his 

 pecuniary claims were shamefully neglected by 

 the Spanish government, and liis unite vexation at 

 this hastened his death, which took place in Pied- 

 mont, 25th Septeml>er 1630. 



Spinoza. UKNEDICT (Benedictus )>eing a trans- 

 lation of the Hebrew Baruch), one of the greatest 

 philosopher* of modern times, was born at Amster- 

 dam on the 24th of November 1632. His parents 

 were rich Spanish or Portuguese Jews, whose 

 name (also spelt D'Espinoza and Despinoza) seems 

 to have been derived from a village called F.sj.i- 

 noza in Leon. Thev hail their son diligently in- 

 structed in the Bible and it commentaries, and 

 the Talmud ; lint after having mastered lioth, 

 and imbilieil the pUloWphical spirit of such com- 

 mentators as Alien Ezra, he was allowed the 

 more readily that his sickly constitution unlit led 

 him for a commercial career tn devote himself 

 entirely to a life of study. Physical sciences and 

 the writings of Descartes, to which he turned lirst 

 of all, very soon drew him away from the rigid 

 lielief and practices of the synagogue; and Saul 

 Lev! Morteira, hi* Talmudical teacher, who hail 

 built the fondest hopes upon the genius of his 

 pupil, wa* the first to threaten him with the direst 



punishment if he did not retract the rank heresies- 

 that he began openly to utter. Spino/:i. alter a 

 time, entirely withdrew from the community of 

 his brethren, who formally excommunicated him 

 (1656). A fanatic even attempted to lii-hti-n him 

 by an either real or feigned attack UIMIII him as he 

 left the synagogue one night. At that period the 

 young truth seeker made the aequiBtUM of the 

 young and beautiful daughter of Van den Knde. 

 liis master in Greek and Latin, and fell passionately 

 in love with her, but was rejected. From that time 

 forth Philosophy became the sole aim and oh- 

 of his life. In accordance with the teachings of 

 the sages of the Mishna, Spinoza had, apart from 

 his studies, made himself master of a mechanical 

 craft; he had learned the art of polishing lenses, 

 and this now became the means of his subsistence. 



When twenty-eight years old he left Amsterdam, 

 and went to Itijnsburg, near Leyden, then the 

 headquarters of a sect of the Kei ..... istntnts or 

 Arminians, known as Collegiants, with one of whom 

 he lived ; and there he wrote the Abrii/nnn nt nf the 

 Meditations of Descartes, with an Appendix the 

 latter being the first draft, so to say, of his l-'.tliics. 

 The year following he removed to Vooibtirg, a 

 suburb of the Hague, and shortly afterwards, yield- 

 ing to the solicitations of his, l>v this time, numer- 

 ous friends, he removed to the Hague itself. The 

 Elector Palatine, Charles Louis, next offered him a 

 vacant chair at the' university of Heidelberg. with 

 full 'liberty of teaching,' provided he would not 

 say aught to prejudice the established religion i.e. 

 Christianity; but Spinoza declined the lucrative 

 and honourable professorship. His small pittance 

 was enough to satisfy his wante. Similarly he 

 refused generous otters made to him by wealthy 

 friends, like Simon de Vries, who intended to 

 bestow a large sum of money upon him ; all he 

 could be prevailed upon to accept was a small 

 annuity of a few hundred florins. An offer of a. 

 pension, on the condition of his dedicating a 

 work to Louis XIV., he rejected with scorn. Hi 

 domestic accounts, found after his death, show 

 that he preferred to live on a few pence a day 

 rather than be indebted to another's bounty. He 

 died, forty-four years old, on the 21st of r'cbruary 

 1677. Throughout his life of study, of alwtemious- 

 ness, of bodily and mental suffering for his con- 

 stitution was no less undermined by consumption 

 and overwork than his sensitive mind was wrought 

 upon liy the violent severance of all natural ties of 

 affection, to say nothing of the misery of occasional 

 want and of perpetual perseciitioi ..... complaint 

 ever passed his lips. Simplicity ami heroic fnrlteor- 

 a nee. coupled with an antique stoicism and a child- 

 like, warm, symiwitliising heart, were the outotand- 

 ing features of him who was nicknamed epicurean 

 ami atheist by his contemporaries. 



Spinoza's philosophical system developed itself 

 on the basis of Descartes (q.v.), who, dissatisfied 

 with both the dogma and the scepticism around 

 him, cleared the ground by first doubling every- 



' 



thing, and then laying a new foundation in 

 ergo sum. Spinoza, however, took his ' I think, 

 therefore I am' merely as a Starting-point to estab- 

 lish not (as with Descartes) an unreconciled dualism 

 of spirit and matter, but a pure Monism, of which 

 the sole foundation is Substance 'that which is in 

 itself ami is conceived through itself;' with an 

 infinite number of Attributes, of which thought 

 and extension, or spirit ami matter, are alone 

 dealt with. Spinoza s one Substance, causa tut, 

 he expressly calls God : yet thi- term is not to 

 be understood in the ordinary sense, for Spinoza's 

 God neither thinks nor creates. There is no real 

 difference, he holds, between mind, as represented 

 by God, and matter, as represented by Nature; 

 they are One, and, according to the light unde 



