SPINOZA 



SPIRE 



643 



which they are viewed, may he called either God 

 or Nature. The visihle world is not distinct from 

 him. It is only his visible manifestation, flowing 

 out of him, who is the first fountain of life and 

 essence, as a finite from the infinite, variety from 

 unity a unity, moreover, in which all varieties 

 merge again. Extension and thought, which with 

 Descartes had been two Substances, with Spinoza 

 | become Attributes that which the mind perceives 

 as constituting Substance. Extension is visible 

 Thought ; Thought i invisible Extension. And 

 this explains the relation between body and mind, 

 and the perfect harmony between them. The 

 mind is the idea of the body i.e. the same 

 thing considered under the attribute of thought. 

 Substance as thought falls into an infinite number 

 of Ideas, and as extension into an infinite number 

 of Bodies. These Spinoza calls Modes. The 

 modus or accidens is only the varying form of 

 Substance. Like the curling waves of the ocean, 

 the modes have no independent existence ; they 

 are simply the ever-varying shapes of the Sub- 

 stance. Substance thus is the only really existing, 

 all-embracing essence, to which belongs every thing 

 perceptible to our senses, and every thing not per- 

 ceptible. Thus, every thonght, wish, or feeling is 

 a Mode of God's Attribute of thought ; every thing 

 visible is a Mode of God's Attribute of extension. 

 God is the ' immanent idea,' the One and All, the 

 ruttura naturans ; World, natura naturata, is 

 one complex whole and one peculiar aspect of 

 God's infinite Attribute of extension. The variety 

 we behold in things is a mere product of our faulty 

 conceptions, particularly of what Spinoza terms 

 our 'imagination,' which perceives unity as a com- 

 plex of multiplicity. The connection of things is 

 the same as the connection of ideas; we attain 

 the truth only when, looking away from the 

 multiplicity of ideas and of things, we behold God 

 tub specie teternitutis. 



His system is mainly contained in his Ethica, 

 which is not a treatise of Ethics, but a complete 

 philosophy. The Ethica he deduces in a mathe- 

 matical form, after the method of Euclid, but with 

 a stringency much more apparent than real. Chief 

 doctrines are : The absence of free-will in man 

 himself only a Modus dependent on causes without, 

 and not within him. Will and Liberty belong only 

 to God, who is not limited by any other Substance. 

 Good and Evil are relative notions, and sin is a 

 mere negative ; for nothing can be done against 

 God's will, and there is no idea of Evil in him. 

 Utility alone, in its highest sense, must determine 

 the good and the evil in our mind. Good, or useful, 

 is that which leads us to greater reality, which 

 preserves and exalts our existence Our real exist- 

 ence is knowledge. Highest knowledge is the 

 knowledge of God. From this arises the highest 

 delight of the spirit. Happiness is not the reward 

 of virtue, hut virtue itself ; and this is to be attained 

 by a diligent following in God's ways. Sin, evil, 

 negation, &c. are merely things that retard and 

 obstruct this supreme happiness. Spinoza's Pan- 

 theism was long regarded as ' the most iniquitous 

 and blasphemous human invention,' and had few 

 followers even in Holland. But in the 18th cen- 

 tury it attracted the admiration of men such as 

 Leaning, Herder, and Goethe, and became with 

 Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel the acknowledged 

 basis of much of modern German philosophy ; and 

 pious theologians like Schleiermacher did not 

 hesitate to apply to Spinoza the epithet of ' pious, 

 virtuous, God-intoxicated.' 



Spinoza's principal works are lifnati Deicartei Prin- 

 cipia PhUotophia More Oeometrico Demonttrata (Am- 

 iterdam, 1063); Tractatut Theologico-politicus (anony- 

 iii' in -i, 1fi70) ; and, published as Opera Poithnma, in the 

 j'-ar of Spinoza's death by Ludwig Meyer: Elhien 



Online Geometrico Demonstrate ( written in its essentials 

 in 1602-65), Tractatus Politicus, Tractatus de Intel- 

 lectus Emendations, Epiitolce, Compendium Grammatices 

 Linguce Hebraxe. Several minor treatises are lost ; but 

 the Tractatui de Deo et ffomine, published in 1862, is a 

 most valuable addition to our materials for tracing the 

 development of Spinoza's system. The Tractatus Theo- 

 loffico-potiticus contains an acute and rationalistic view 

 of revelation, and in his biblical criticism Spinoza 

 shows much more directly the influence of Maimonides 

 than in his ethics. In his politics he has many 

 points common with Hobbes. The literature on the 

 Spinozistic philosophy is very copious, especially in 

 Germany; Spinoza's life has even been made by Auer- 

 bach the subject of a romance. There are editions of 

 Spinoza's works by Paulus (1803), Brnder (1846), and 

 especially Van Vloten and Land (2 vols. 1882-83). There 

 are translations of Spinoza's chief works by Elwes ( 1884 ), 

 and of the Ethic by W. H. White (1883), as also by H. 

 Smith (with an essay, Spinoza and his Environment, 

 Cincinnati, 1886). There are English monographs on 

 Spinoza by Sir F. Pollock (1880), l)r Martineau (1882), 

 and Principal Caird ( 1888 ) ; works in German by Sigwart 

 (1839), Thomas (1840), Camerer (1877), and Baltzer 

 (1888); in French by Saintes (1842). See, besides 

 Ueberweg and the other histories of philosophy, the 

 bibliography by Van der Linde ( Hague, 1871 ). A monu- 

 ment to Spinoza was erected at the Hague in 1880. 



S|>iririi, a genus of plants of the natural order 

 Rosacese, and of the sub-order Spiraea;, in which 

 the fruit consists of five or fewer capsular carpels. 

 The genus Spiraea has one or more follicular, many- 

 seeded carpels. It contains a large number of 

 species, natives of Europe, Asia, and America, 

 herbaceous plants and low deciduous shrubs ; of 

 the herbaceous species two are natives of Britain, 

 Dropwort (S. filipendula) and Meadow Sweet or 

 Queen of the Meadow (S. ulmaria), both with 

 interruptedly pinnate leaves and flowers in cymes. 



Spiraea anmcus. 



Dropwort is a native of dry upland pastures ; it is 

 tonic and fragrant ; and its tubers, which are some- 

 what nutritious, are in Sweden ground and made 

 into bread. Meadow Sweet is well known for the 

 powerful fragrance of its flowers. A fragrant dis- 

 tilled water is prepared from them. A North 

 American species (S. tomentosa), called Hardback 

 in the United States, is there used as a tonic and 

 astringent. Many of the shrubby epecies are 

 frequently planted for ornament. 



Spiral Vessels. See STEM. 

 Spire, a very acute pyramidal roof in common 

 use over the towers of churches- The history of 



