358 



SPINOZA. 



ami that he would follow exactly a contrary course, 

 communicated his suspicions to prince Maurice, 

 and both of them were thus completely duped. 

 "Others," said Henry, "deceive their enemies by 

 falsehood, Spinola by the truth." Maurice at length 

 discerned the artifice, but was able to gain no deci- 

 sive advantage over his adversary. The two gene- 

 rals ably availed themselves of the fortresses and 

 nature of the ground, to keep each other in check. 

 A decisive naval action near Gibraltar, in which the 

 whole Spanish fleet was destroyed by the Dutch 

 admiral Heemskerk (1607), induced the Spanish 

 court to propose an armistice, which was concluded 

 between Spinola and Maurice for twelve years 

 (1609). The neighbourhood of Juliers-Cleves- 

 Berg had tempted the Dutch to take part in the 

 dispute concerning the succession to that duchy, 

 (see League), and Spain, instigated by hatred of 

 Protestantism, by her connection with the house of 

 Austria, and the hope of recovering her lost domi- 

 nion over Holland, entered into the war (1621). 

 Cleves fell into the hands of Spinola, Breda was 

 invested by the Spanish forces, and Maurice perished ! 

 in his efforts to compel the enemy to raise the 

 siege. Spinola himself was made sick by the nox- ' 

 ious air of the marshy soil ; but the gates were 

 finally opened to him after a ten months' siege ; 

 (May 1625). This was his last achievement; his 

 health obliged him to resign the command, although 

 he once more appeared in the field, in Italy (1630). 

 but chagrin at the ill-treatment of the Spanish court, i 

 hastened his death, which took place in 1630, too 

 soon for Spain, but not too soon for his fame, which, 

 perhaps like that of Tilly, would have suffered, bad 

 he lived to encounter Gustavus Adolphus. His J 

 rival Maurice, when asked who was the greatest 

 captain of the age, said " Spinola is the second." 



SPINOZA, BARUCH, or as he translated his 

 name, BENEDICT, was born in 1632, at Amsterdam, 

 of a Jewish Portuguese family, and early gave proof 

 of a reflecting mind and an independent spirit, which 

 a scanty education only excited to new efforts. He 

 was early dissatisfied with the instructions of the 

 rabbins, and determined to examine for himself. 

 The goodness of his disposition could not preserve 

 him from persecution when his mode of thinking was 

 discovered. He was calumniated and accused before 

 the synagogue. He refuted the accusations with 

 calmness, in spite of menaces on one hand, and zeal- 

 ous attempts to convert him on the other, but was at 

 length excommunicated. He received the sentence 

 with equanimity, and thenceforth joined no particular 

 religious denomination. After this event Spinoza 

 learned Latin and Greek of Van den Ende, a Dutch 

 physician, and fell in love with his daughter ; but a 

 rival succeeded in winning her affections, and Spinoza 

 remained unmarried. The Jews still persecuted him, 

 and even attempted to assassinate him. Meanwhile 

 he continued his investigations, at first following 

 the doctrines of Descartes, as his Principles of the 

 Cartesian Philosophy show, and for support, em- 

 ployed himself in grinding optical glasses. See 

 Siegwart On the Connexion of Spinozism with the 

 Cartesian Philosophy (Tub., 1816) ; and Ritter On 

 the Influence of the Philosophy of Descartes (Leip- 

 sic, 1816). Through the intrigues of the Jews, he 

 was banished from Amsterdam by the magistrates 

 for several months, and retired quietly to the house 

 of a friend. He then went to Rynsburgh, in the 

 vicinity of Leyden, and to Voorburg, near the 

 Hague, where he devoted himself, for three or four 

 years, to philosophical investigations; and at length, 



in compliance with the solicitations of several 

 friends, he settled permanently at the Hague. Here 

 he published his two principal works. Even his 

 enemies allow that he was very temperate, regular 

 and frugal; in the intercourse of life, he was kind 

 and gentle, always affable and equable, patient, 

 diligently employed in writing or making telescopes, 

 so that he would remain at home for three months 

 together, seeking his chief recreation in a pipe of 

 tobacco, or in observing the contests of flies with 

 spiders. His disinterestedness appears from the 

 circumstance that he refused a gift of 2000 florins 

 and a valuable legacy from his friend Van Vries, 

 who then bequeathed to him an annuity of 500 

 florins, which Spinoza reduced again to 300. To 

 his avaricious sisters he gave up all his patrimony, 

 which was legally adjudged to him, except a sing! 

 bed, that he might assert his right. He had many 

 distinguished friends with whom he corresponded. 

 The prince of Conde invited him to visit him, in 

 1672, at Utrecht, and sent him a passport. Spinoza 

 accepted the invitation, but missed seeing the 

 prince, who had been obliged by business to leave 

 the city. The elector palatine was anxious to draw 

 him to Heidelberg as professor of philosophy, with 

 liberty to lecture as he should see fit ; but Spinoza 

 refused. For more than twenty years he had a ten- 

 dency to consumption, and for this reason, he ob- 

 served the strictest temperance ; but owing to the 

 clearness of his mind, and the usual kindness of nature 

 to those who labour under this disease, he was calm 

 and cheerful. He died in 1677. Several different 

 authors have written his life, especially Diez (Des- 

 sau, 1783) and Philipson (Brunswick, 1790). His 

 works in the Latin language are, 1. the Principles 

 of the Philosophy of Descartes, with an appendix, 

 containing metaphysical opinions (Amsterdam, 1663, 

 4to.) ; 2. a Treatise, political and theological, in 

 which it is shown not only that freedom of thought 

 can exist without endangering the public peace and 

 virtue, but that it must necessarily stand or fall 

 with them (1670, 4to.) ; 3. Posthumous Works (Am- 

 sterdam, 1677, 4to.) ; to wit, . Ethics, demon- 

 strated geometrically ; b. a Treatise on Politics ; 

 c. an unfinished work on the Improvement of the 

 Mind ; d an unfinished Hebrew Grammar ; and e. 

 Letters. H. E. G. Paulus published these works 

 of Spinoza in two volumes (Jena, 1802 3). His 

 system is principally laid down in his Ethics, 

 though valuable information is also to be obtained 

 respecting it from his Letters. 



Spinoza felt like every other philosopher, the 

 longing to elevate himself to a point at which the 

 struggle between matter and mind, liberty and ne- 

 cessity, &c., is done alway, and all discord ceases. 

 This led him to the idea of an original substance 

 embracing all existence. Substance, of course, in 

 this sense, means something very different from what 

 we usually understand by the word. (See Sub- 

 stance.') This original substance, in which all con- 

 tradictions cease, all subjects of finite consciousness 

 disappear, he called God ; by which he understood 

 that which has an independent existence, and the un- 

 derstanding of which requires not the idea of any thing 

 else. This substance, according to him, is infinite, 

 and nought else exists ; it is incapable of creating any 

 thing material or intellectual, for all matter and 

 mind are comprehended in itself; its attributes are 

 infinite thought and infinite extension. God, this 

 all-embracing being, can act only in accordance with 

 the established order, for otherwise we must sup- 

 pose him capable of a change of nature, or that there 



