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compliments to the governor and principal cfficcrs. He 

 diltributed money among tlie foldiers, provided with the 

 utmoft attention for the cure of the Tick and wounded, and 

 conveyed the reft in the moil commodious manner poffible to 

 the next fortrefs. Having fulfilled the duties of a hero, he 

 refigned his command, as'having no longer an equal foe m 

 the"" field with whom he could contend. In 1627, palTing 

 from Antwerp to Madrid, he took Rochelle in his way, in 

 order to witnefs the memorable fiege of that place. Riche- 

 lieu coiifultcd him on the beft means of bringing it to a 

 conclufion. " Shut the port," he faid, " and open the 

 hand;" meaning thereby, that the befiegers fliould be 

 liberally treated. 



The court of Spain recalled Spinola from the Low Coun- 

 tries in 1629, and fent him into Italy, where he in the fol- 

 lowing year took Cafal. The citadel, however, remained in 

 the hands of the French, owing to the impediments thrown 

 in his way by orders from Madrid. The anxiety and vexa- 

 tion which this circumftance occafioned, co-operating with 

 difeafe, put an end to his life in the fame year, at a moment 

 when he was at the fummit of his military reputation. It 

 is faid that his great antagonift, prince Maurice, gave this 

 teilimony to his charafter, when being allied who was the 

 firlt captain of tiie age, replied, " Spinola is the fecond." 



SPINOLETTA, in Ornithology, the name of a fmall 

 bird of the lark kind, the alauda fpinoletta of Linnxus, 

 called tordino by the Venetians, and feeming to be ihejloppa- 

 rola, as alfo the grifola d^nA/pipola, of Aldrovandus. It is 

 fmaller than the common lark ; its head, neck, Ihoulders, 

 and back, are of a greyilh colour, with an admixture of 

 green ; its brealt and belly white, and its throat fpotted : 

 the female differs from the male, in that her belly is yellow ; 

 the wing-feathers are of a dufky brown, with whitifh or 

 yellowilh eda;es ; its tail is moderately long, and part of the 

 feathers are fnow-white, the rell brown or blackifh ; the 

 length of the heel dillinguifhes this bird from all others, ex- 

 cept the lark kind, and it differs from all the fpecies of 

 larks in the colour of its beak and legs, which are black. 

 It IS common in the markets of Venice and other places. 

 Ray. 



SPINOSA, in Zoology, the name by which the Italians 

 call the porcupine. 



SPINOSE Leaf, among Botanijls. See Leaf. 



SPINOSI Pi.scES, in Ichthyolegy, fuch fiihes as have 

 fome of the rays of their back fins running out into thorns 

 and prickles, as the perch, &c. See FiSH. 



SPlNOZA, in Biography. See the next article. 



SPINOZISM, or SpixosisM, thedoftrine of Spinoza; 

 or, atheifm and panthcifm propofed after the manner of 

 Spinoza. 



The great principle of Spinozifm is, that there is nothing 

 properly and abfolutely exifting, but matter and the modi- 

 fications of matter ; among which are even comprehended 

 thoughts abllraft and general ideas, comparifons, relations, 

 combinations of relations, &c. 



Benedift de Spinoza, or Efpinoza, was a man well 

 known in Holland. He was born at Amfterdam, in the 

 year 1632, being a Jew both by defcent and education ; but 

 at an early period of his life he manifeited fuch diilatisfac- 

 tion with the religion of his fathers, and advanced opinions 

 fo contrary to their eltablifhcd tenets, that a fentence of 

 anathema was pronounced againft him by his brethren. 

 Having been excommunicated from the fynagogue, fome 

 Chriftians, who were attached to him, afforded him an afy- 

 lum, and gave him an opportunity of acquiring a knowledge 

 of the Latin and Greek languages, and of lludying the 

 Cartefian philofophy. But as he ftill continued with great 



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vehemence to attack the religion of his countrymen, they 

 attempted firft to filence him by bribe, offering him an an- 

 nual penfion of icoo ilorins, and afterwards to take hini 

 off by allaffniation. Both thefe meafures proving in- 

 effeftual, tliey accufed him, before the magiltrate, of apof- 

 tacy and blalphemy ; and he w:is baniflied from the city. 

 In his exile, he ftudied mathematics and natural philofophy, 

 and procured a fubfiltence by polifhing optical glades. He 

 refided chiefly at Rhenburg, where he was often vifited by 

 the followers of Defcartes, who cor.fulted him on difficult 

 quellions. At their requell he pubhfhed, in 1664, «' The 

 Principles of the Cartefian Philofophy demonftrated geo- 

 metrically," with an appendix, containing metaphyfical 

 opinions altogether inconfiltcnt with the doftrine of Def- 

 cartes. In order to efcape the odium which was occa- 

 fioned by this publication, he retired to a village not far 

 from the Hague, whither he was followed by many of his 

 countrymen and foreigners, wlio were inclined to adopt his 

 doctrines. The eleftor palatine invited him to occupy the 

 chair of philofophy at HeidelbcriJ- ; but apprehending that 

 his liberty would be abridged, he declined the propofal, 

 and continued to live in retirement, with great iobriety and 

 decency of manners, until a confumption brought him td 

 an early end, in the year 1667. 



Spinoza compofed feveral books in Latin ; the m.oft cele- 

 brated of which ij his «' Traftatus Theologico-Politicus," 

 printed at Amfferdam in 1670, in which he attempts to 

 overturn the foundation of all religion : the book, accord- 

 ingly, was condemned by a public decree of the States i 

 though it has llnce been lold publicly, and even reprinted, 

 both i;-: Latin and French, in that country, and in Englifh 

 at London. ig 



In this work Spinoza infinuates, that all religions are I 

 only political engines, calculated for the public good, to 

 render the people obedient to magillrates, and to make them 

 praftife virtue and morality. n 



He does not here lay down his notion of the Deity I 

 openly, but contents himfelf with fuggelling it. In his 

 " Ethics demonltrated geometrically," publifhed among 

 his pofthumous works, he is more open and exprefs ; main- 

 taining, that God is not, as we imagine him, an infinite, 

 intelligent, happy, and perfeA Being ; nor any thing but 

 that natural virtue, or faculty, which is diffufed throughout 

 all creatures. 



His other pollhumous treatifes are entitled " Politics," 

 " On the Improvement of the Underltanding," " Epiltles 

 and Anfwers," and a " Hebrew Grammar." The vari- 

 ous impieties contained in thefe treatifes excited general in- 

 dignation ; and refutations were illued by writers of all 

 religious perfuafions, who concurred in amply expofing the 

 empty fophifms, the equivocal definitions, the falfe reafoii- 

 ings, and all the absurdities with which his writings 

 abounded. 



The life of Spinoxa has been accurately written by Co- 

 lerus, whofe performance was publifhed at the Hague in 

 8vo. in 1706. But a more ample and circumitantial ac- 

 count of this fingular man has been given by Lenglet du 

 Frefnoy, and is prefixed to Boulainvilliers's Expofition of 

 the Dottrine of Spinoza, whi-,h was publifhed at Amfter- 

 dam, in i2mo., in 1751. Frefnoy republilhed the work 

 of Colerus, and added to it feveral anecdotes, borrowed 

 from a Life of Spinoza, written by Lucas, a phyfician at 

 the Hague. 



The learned Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Gneca, lib. v. 

 part iii. p. 119, and Jenichen, in his Hilloria Spinozifmi 

 Lehnhofiani, p. 38 — 72, have given an ample Lft of thofe 

 writers who have refuted the fyllem of Spinoza. Witfiu* 



in 



