ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

ART. I.-Benedict de Spinoza; a Biographical Study.1 BY DAVID P. RAMSEUR, M. D.

THE material necessary for writing accurately the early history of the subject of this sketch is very scant. From the best-authenticated accounts, however, it is probable that BENEDICT DE SPINOZA was born in the city of Amsterdam, on the 29th day of November, 1632. His parents were Jews, and, on account of

1 Books consulted. B. d. S., Opera Posthuma: 1677. Leibnitz, Opera. Berlin edition: 1840. La Vérité de la Résurrection de JésusChrist defendue contre Spinosa, avec la Vie de ce Philosophe. Le Haye: 1706. Theism: the Witness of Reason and Revelation to a Wise and Beneficent Creator. By Rev. J. Tulloch, D. D., Professor of Theology, St. Mary's College, St. Andrew's. Edinburgh: 1855. Histoire de la Vie et des Ouvrages de B. Spinosa, par Armand Saintes. Paris: 1842.

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⚫ their religion, were driven from Spain, by Ferdinand and Isabella, who, yielding to pernicious counsel, banished from their dominions all those Israelites who refused to embrace Christianity. Some of those un

fortunates the majority, perhaps took up the staff of the pilgrim, and, wandering over the face of the earth, endeavored to find a more hospitable asylum, where, without any one to disturb them, they might follow the teachings of their fathers. Of these, many fled to the East; and history relates that, by one of those singular freaks which occasionally mark its course, those Hebrews, who took refuge under the im mediate domain of the pope, met with a decidedly more tolerant treatment than those who remained in the more ultra-Catholic Spain.

Although the parents of Spinoza were bowed down by the heavy weight of poverty, they eventually managed, by the exercise of an active industry and the strictest economy, to raise the means necessary to pay for his liberal education. Therefore, the best school in Amsterdam, which, at that time, was taught by one of the most learned Hebrews of the day, was the one to which the young Benedict was sent. He was early distinguished among his fellow-pupils for his rapid advancement in all the studies which were imposed upon his class in common. It was also at this school that he began to be remarked for that fondness for retirement and seclusion which became, in his after-life, as it were, a second nature.

Spinoza had been brought up in a strict adherence to the Jewish faith, but on attaining his majority, he renounced Judaism, and, according to some accounts, made a profession of Christianity. It is not probable, however, that he actually became a Christian. If he

did, he did not continue one, in the usual acceptation of the term. He began to establish a philosophy of his own. What that philosophy was, has not yet been definitely decided. Dugald Stewart declares posi tively that Spinozism and atheism are "one and the same thing." Schleiermacher says, "without adopting the system of Spinoza, I know it to be just toward his Saviour, and acceptable for the purity of its sentiments." Armand Saintes, speaking of the tendency of the age toward Pantheism, says Spinoza is "le plus fidèle representant de ce système philosophique et religieux."

He could not be a representative of each of these doctrines; and yet the positive diversity of opinion on the subject gives an additional interest to the question as to his real character. Some of the writers say that the Jews of his native city offered to tolerate him, provided he would comply outwardly with their ceremonies, and that, in order to get him to remain with them, they even promised him a yearly pension. But they applied to the wrong person: Spinoza could resolve upon no such hypocrisy. Indeed, one of the most notable features of his nature was his extreme hatred of any thing that approached, in however small a degree, the form of dissimulation. To gain a similar end, that is, to procure the weight of his avowed opinions, he was offered the chair of philosophy in one of the first seats of learning of the age.

Here, then, we have this interesting character presented for our consideration—a Jew in poverty, whom money could not purchase; and a Jew devoted to learning, who could not be seduced from his seclusion, by the proffer of a professorship in the University of Heidelberg. After a long and close scrutiny of the

teachings of Judaism, he had found the doctrine unacceptable, had forsaken it, and no amount of shekels could induce him to resume it. Not only that, but he could not be made to keep his opinions to himself. Those who have written about him, though they may bitterly condemn his system of philosophy, are nevertheless forced to commend this spirit of determined candor.

It was only by degrees that Spinoza left their synagogue; and perhaps he would not have dissolved his connection with them so soon, had he not been treacherously attacked by a Jew, who thrust a knife into him as he was coming from the play. Although the wound was but a slight one, and although his assailant curiously pretended that it had been inflicted in sport, Spinoza believed him to be an assassin, and had no doubt that the injury was intended to be fatal. After this attempt upon his life, he left the Jews altogether, and some time subsequently he suffered the formal decree of excommunication.

Now it was that he began, unintentionally as he afterward declared, to establish a separate school of philosophical belief. When he was offered the professorship of philosophy in the University of Heidelberg, before spoken of, he replied that the acceptance of that chair would interfere with the course of study which he had laid out for himself. He announced that he desired to be untrammelled, in order that he might devote his entire attention to one subject. That subject was GOD-GOD, as he endeavored to interpret and understand HIM.

An examination of his system will demonstrate to us, that some violence would be done to the definition of Christianity which would include Spinoza among

its followers. And yet, as he openly avowed that he wished to be alone, in order that he might study his GOD, it would not be exactly proper to class him among the atheists. It is also possible that both may be wrong. If one class of disputants is right, the other is wrong. If not a Christian, if not an atheist, what, then, was he?

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There has been, latterly, such a revival of the interest felt in this question that, it is probable, at no distant day the teachings of Spinoza may be more appropriately classified. At present, at least, the spirit of search has been aroused. It is said that every of his writing is now sought for, with that avidity which characterizes the zeal of persons looking for any reminiscences whatever of departed greatness. But the varying comments upon his works have not, as yet, been able to relieve them from an air of obscu rity regarding his religious belief. About his utter ances there was no obscurity whatever, for he spent the greater part of his life in studying the language in which he expressed himself, clear of all ambiguities. But for the ambiguities of his theological tenets, he would be an example worthy of admiration and imitation. Very seldom it is that any man in this world lives a life so well worth writing as Spinoza lived; and yet of his private history, rich as it must have been, and abundant traces of it as must be extant somewhere in his own and his friends' correspondence, we only know enough to feel how vast a chasm remains to be filled. The best account which remains of him we owe not to an admiring disciple, but to a clergyman to whom his theories were detestable; and this biogra pher allows that the most malignant scrutiny had failed to detect a blemish upon his character. He would not