sophy; and such protectors he would have in the brothers De Witt at the Hague. This is what he means when he tells Oldenburg that he has friends influential in the State, who may guard him against danger; and that if they cannot he will hold his peace." There, as elsewhere, Dr. Martineau's narrative acquires additional interest and worth from the vivid picture it gives of the contemporary history and politics, and of the influence which the political ideas of Spinoza and his friends exerted upon the higher thought of the country. The seven years which he spent at Voorburg were devoted to the composition of two principal works, the first half of the period being given to the Ethics, the latter to the Theologico-Political Treatise; and in the former half he also gave some attention to the unfinished essay on Method. As an explanation of the non-completion of this last-mentioned work, Dr. Martineau approves of the acute remark of Avenarius “that Spinoza had to break off the Emendation' treatise because, when he came to define the intellect, he could not do it without resort to his metaphysical system for which he was only preparing the way, and this difficulty forced him to see that a doctrine of the intellect could not be a prelude to his metaphysics, inasmuch as it can arise only as their result." The Ethics he continued to compose in Dutch, and, as the portions were completed, sent them to Amsterdam for his disciples there to study and translate into Latin. Dr. Martineau shows from Spinoza's correspondence that it is most probable that his great work which was begun in 1661 was already complete before the autumn of 1665, and "this well accords with the fact that in September of this year Oldenburg twits him with having turned from philosophy to theology, to treat of 'angels and miracles and prophecy,' in evident allusion to his having taken in hand his Theologico-Political Treatise. For the next four years his industry was concentrated upon this work—a disproportioned time if measured by the † p. 49.

* Ib. p. 51.

product of the previous equal term, but not if we allow for the difference between an achievement of genius and a result of study. His Ethics depended only on his powers of thought, spontaneously moving on the lines or off the lines traced already by Descartes. His Treatise deals with a vast ancient literature and history, and involves a continued criticism of the opinions of others on a cyclopædia of unsettled questions." *

As an explanation of the circumstance that Spinoza allowed the manuscript of the Ethica to lie by while he was composing the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Dr. Mar tineau suggests that he found at Amsterdam that the papers containing the Ethics had passed too freely from hand to hand for the authorship to remain a secret. "This awakened his fears, and sent him back with a resolve to open his assault upon public errors from another side, and by a work which, never leaving his own desk during its progress, should be brought home to him by neither indiscretion nor treachery." The Tractatus appeared, accordingly, in 1670, anonymously. It made a great sensation, exciting both vehement admiration and vehement condemnation. The doctrine of the subjection of the Church to the State, which it advocated, brought upon it the bitter condemnation of the clerical party, "for if there is anything that ecclesiastical dogmatists of all parties are united in hating with a perfect hatred, it is the Erastian view of the relation of the State to religious differences." It was accordingly proscribed along with the Leviathan, of Hobbes, and other works, as a Socinian production—a fate which Spinoza had dreaded, and to avoid which, if possible, he had discountenanced the translation of the book from Latin into Dutch. While engaged on these two great literary labours he had also, during his residence at Voorburg, carried on an extensive scientific correspondence, particularly with Oldenburg, and, through Oldenburg, with Boyle, and other Mr. Pollock's Spinoza, p. 33.

* p. 55.

† p. 59.

English savans. Dr. Martineau has carefully examined these letters, and gives good reasons for his conclusion-a conclusion which appears somewhat at variance with Mr. Pollock's impression *" that, in truth, Spinoza's physical knowledge does not seem to have been so accurate or so large as his opportunities would lead us to expect. The reflective tendency of his genius did not permit him to pause with long patience upon the analysis of concrete facts, but hurried him away into the region of large conceptions (generals that had never been generalised), whence, as he believed, he could see them brought to the birth.” ↑

Soon after the publication of the Tractatus, Spinoza removed from the neighbourhood of the Hague to the city itself. One of his motives for settling at Voorburg had been the facility it gave for intercourse with cultured friends living at the Hague, and, now that he had finished his two great works, he could afford time to receive the accession of visitors which his residence at the Hague itself would involve. Even at Voorburg several distinguished foreigners sought him out, and after the publication of the Theologico-Political Treatise, the number of persons anxious to converse with him was much increased. At first he lodged and boarded with the widow Van de Velde, who had already had some acquaintance with the ways of studious men, for fifty years before she had been in service at the house of the celebrated Grotius. We cannot resist the temptation of quoting Dr. Martineau's vivid picture of Spinoza's habits during this last period of his life :

After the lapse of a generation, the widow's house was occupied by Coler, the worthy Lutheran minister who became Spinoza's biographer. He used as his study the single backroom which held the philosopher's bed, and books, and tools of work. No house, once made memorable, passes down without its traditions; and to these we owe the scanty notices remaining of the widow's lodger. Though it was the pleading of friends † p. 64.

* Ib., p. 11.

that had brought him into town, the chief thing that struck observers seems to have been his loneliness of habit. Even for his meals he would often not quit his room, and for two or three days together would see no one. In part this may have been due to a discouraging experience of the cost of living at the Hague; for the necessity of retrenchment drove him next year to remove into a house on the Pavilio-en-gragt, at the back of the widow's, occupied by a painter, Van der Spijck, whose wife would allow him to provide his own meals, and save something by their frugality. Here he spent the last five and a-half years of his life, endeared to his host and hostess by his sweet temper and quiet friendly ways, but declining all social visits beyond the house, though graciously receiving the calls of visitors entitled to seek him."*

Though at the Hague Spinoza devoted so much time to study as sometimes not to leave the house for months, yet the literary results do not seem proportionate to the labour, for we know only of the unfinished Tractatus Politicus and of notes for a new edition of the Tractatus TheologicoPoliticus. Dr. Martineau suggests that "his feeble health was now beginning to tell upon his power of intellectual achievement-upon its quantity, though not upon its quality; and that the languid moods which insisted upon relief from strain became more frequent."+

The relations between Spinoza and Leibnitz, which occurred during these last years of Spinoza's life, are fully described by Dr. Martineau, who arrives at the conclusion that "the charge against Leibnitz, of insincere and timeserving depreciation of Spinoza, has no real foundation." These relations with Leibnitz are connected with the far more interesting and intimate connection between Spinoza and Freiherr von Tschirnhaus, a Bohemian nobleman of a noble and generous temper. He was about twenty years younger than Spinoza, and after Spinoza's death earned considerable renown by his achievements in science. He was not only a savant, however, but an acute student of the mental processes involved in scientific discovery.

*

p. 73.

† p. 74.

‡ p. 79.

Hence his lively interest in the writings of both Spinoza and Leibnitz, and it was his report to Leibnitz of Spinoza's doctrines which induced the former to visit the philosopher of the Hague. Dr. Martineau regards Tschirnhaus as the keenest of Spinoza's contemporary critics, and the sketch which he gives of this nobleman's character and career, and of his relations with Spinoza, is most attractive.

About this time an incident occurred which showed that Spinoza's name and reputation had already reached the great centres of learning in Europe-an offer, namely, to him from the Elector Palatine, Karl Ludwig, of the Chair of Philosophy in the University of Heidelberg, with no other restriction on his action than the understanding that he would not misuse his liberty to disturb the established religion. Spinoza replies in an admirable letter, politely declining the offer, partly because he feared teaching would interfere with philosophical research, and partly because he is not sure what is involved in this understanding that he should not disturb the public religion.

In the year preceding this invitation the tragic fate of the De Witts occurred. The historical incidents associated with that brutal murder are depicted with Dr. Martineau's rare descriptive power, and on this occasion we see Spinoza's soul, usually so placid, vehemently stirred by strong emotions of grief and indignation :-" For once his equanimity gave way, and on hearing the news he burst into a passion of tears. Nay, he resolved to denounce the crime on the spot where it was committed; and prepared a handbill which he was about to post up by night in the low precincts of the prison; but was saved from the rash act by Van der Spijck's precaution in locking the house door and refusing exit."*

Not long after this Spinoza again incurred public odium by an act of which his biographers, previous to Dr. Martineau, have failed to discover any satisfactory explana

* A Study of Spinoza, p. 88.