SPINOZA 



ure in asking questions that the most learned Rabbi 

 could not answer. He began to study the Talmud 

 and the Bible in solitude, and to meditate over 

 their contents. The comments that he made when 

 conversing with his friends drew the attention and 

 the censures of the chief men of the synagogue, 

 who required him to withdraw from their assembly. 

 He then at first preferred the society and belief of 

 Christians, but soon retired to his own meditations, 

 to which the works of Descartes gave new occupation. 

 As he advanced in Philosophy he gave up more and 

 more the faith of his Fathers, and forsook the 

 Synagogue forever, abandoning even all intercourse 

 with the Jews. He supported himself by working 

 on and grinding lenses, and lived in the most retired 

 and abstemious manner. His health had always 

 been delicate, and he was physically weak. He died 

 very suddenly in his 46th year. 



According to the doctrine of Spinoza, "The illu- 

 sion of the finite, the illusions of sense, imagination 

 and passion, which raise the individual's life, even the 

 present moment of the individual life, with its pass- 

 ing feelings, into the standard for measuring the uni- 

 verse, is the source of all evil and error to men." 

 " On the other hand, his highest good is to view all 

 things from their centre in God, and to be moved 

 only by the passion for good in general the intel- 



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