SPECIAL ARTICLE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19168, 26 November 1927, Page 13

SPECIAL ARTICLE.

, A> r IN TEBESTING A B EVIVAL. 0 F SPINOW"

„ T W J3TNT, M.A--J rßy J. "• ° ,

„». of this year, 1927, Holr h Vr-rncd world have been two hundred and effl ° lersary of the death of < d TP' oneofthc T tc o 3 f B»roeh «« °v £ anu of £ Prt It fs al-ys fitting that, jH"** ."'with such commemorations, i» Mßae ? M be some permanent » 8r9 n „fan appropriate <*""*'' I^°' a b ding invest and utHity. ' Cp«sent occasion such a J* .l. been contributed in a >rt • •„ the University of London, on Spinoza. Prohas made a book the ** Twbich is the original old of Spinoza, which is admitted to have been W n he year of his aeath, or •fSrtbS the following yea, To "lessor Wolf has added an Eng- * .htlw-tho first that has ever — d thesc two ver - W fA» accumulated a considerable ?«tod mass of bibliographical and £3* l material relating to T ~ life and death. ft*" 0 !* u ike to give some brief aclft£ onLts, and the probtney involve. But, if any *i reaaer" should glance down he might like first a few himself. In the "•"STire find his first name in »C Barueh, Benedict, and Rfflto three are one. They ttn ''Blessed"; the firs in t£ the second in Latin, and the M Tench. The bearer of these M W perhaps, the most perfect Sette ideal philosopher that has [ cleared in an imperfect world, profound berSdißlnterested, he was absolutely SSnwgard'to personal advantage *Jij B c lory. Ono pure and that of fiTrnth," Shed her lustre on his path; and Sardoarof his pursuit of her he «M on his enemies, cherished his Si and sacrificed worldly renown, SJ Advantages, and even the tot physical comforts.. T was torn in Amsterdam h°tfu year 1632, his parents Jr. Spanish (or Portuguese tortwho, like hundreds of their fellow'Srmi; had fled to Holland as M, from the Inquisition. As fahU was to find to his cost later ,!»were only exchanging one Molttligious intolerance for anS but of that by the way. The ■■'MA community at Amsterdam, a fctfud powerful body, had its own jjk.at which all Jew boys were Aalei The medium of instruction wueluriveJy the Hebrew language; nl'tlit course was based exclusively oil* Jewish Scriptures, together with imiW-d«partments of Jewish literaWiJliPther branches, the sciences, ■{jpMiMMgw. etc., must be pur*i|tfiV'iUf.in the home. This school Hi to Spinoza attended for years. for the smooth 'ibe family plans, he was f teSS, «y«n as a boy, with a singuVWilostosand penetrating intellect, :ttdiyMtfon for truth which would ts«lKjron trust or authority. mmm his intensive study was te'Mil' in an attitude towards 'tf lft?s| the Prophets widely difiSWjlNpa: that of the Babbinical . iriWjeV. This was no novelty in the Vowjii wojjd. To mention only one WriWl Sample, the great mediteval iTffjah pjhilosopher, Maiinonides, inws ia the necessity of a rationalistic {Werpwtotfon of the Old Testament *pir«. 'Why, then, was Spinoza utoomunicited, while Maimomdes is leWinßternaUonojir? To answer this necessitate, a disquisiwa on the relirious conditions of the Motherlands at $e time, which is quite impossible h«r«. We can only add that ""attendant.circumstances of the cxeommanication reflected much more tawrar on gpinoza than on his per•ecators. ,:! - JWs was in 1656. After an absence WW Amsterdam of a few weeks, Spinand lived there until TO.,;This was the determinative or P»t«Ye period of his life. Probably wtttommunication was a blessing in Ww« It transformed him from the JPWjher of a race or a period into jKWWpher of humanity and of all » SMB* It was with him a period 2#P.internal struggle. We have a WWWn of his, in which he tears JWWI, and weighs in the balance, jM"? One hand what men prize most, S»W, riches, pleasure; on the other, gliWp internal serenity which atBj Wntemplation and the pursuit of 2?iii!-' n * lth tno attendant physical poverty, privation, and Jjr«P; .His choice was deliberately r*i and from it. he never wavered. 1, J.?* 1 " he was sought out by r*»fthe most distignished men in arfy «nd tempting offers (such as g? Chair of Philosophy at Heidel--2» nw held out to him. He was EJ& and grateful to all; and he wnversation pf learned men. L ',*?. n, d not accept nnv position 'sofK b" m^ o * oi his chosen Wirf Tv nas to h ' s cre dit many »«? V - ? ate and punctilious generJ^'J? 1 * aggravated his poverty, B *.-kirn to rich and poor Wtowl a " nis Rraciousness *iWUi,iS en v M| hfl couW show superb iU. P. n y 81 cal courage when occaHe could even "be Wr»d ft « m not -" as was t0 I>c iltlto a mei »orable occasion. totC T 2? twenty-eight Spinoza $ dlst «ctions and turmoil iMtou $> and sn "Knt retreat in of Rij ns bnrR t near I*** AT^L, own A lane,'may still lojff.Jw little house in which he iWotol reßtol- ed and equipped as ■tJsi ? ,S^ Uß6um - hi lived for of deep thinking, ( a«? •' increasing corres- ? •iairin^- , - nvas,ons fr °m carious Vth, Suitors. He was feeling tlons o{ ft new system of *««7?' new method of philoso■S'««to n!? nt . ,, «w °f God, Man, W* toll.-, i IS - tem Ptod to say a Uf* tima^V 6 at ; lo n to the thought inX« T O4 . lfc Wou,d be ridicu--25 lj^k ,B J a ' discurßi ™ sketch £* Se (students can conP ? lock )- His next S*Wa?l ° Voorb «rg. a village f t| «W0 W l» whero he livcd from SjUe ZtL V ' 7 nttl ° is known of s P eriod - H e was ltt h j» "Ethics," from «**» eont; R l nrn ? d aside t0 w »te t ha t B*^P ft .v rßlal work, "Tractatus ys«"iJ?J* i «-" He gave a, S the ,J Wnt,n g nrst, to hurl Jtos ca ff» of atheism, which ?Nn»u Opines were constantly &Peonl ß ,^ th ' arouse tlcs were a furnace, !' and more tolerant views 2* tC * / rds those wl 'o Differed Cs*iato'tw4 now in 1670 Spinoza T^sr'w'-? a * ne itßelf » wh ere for *sy* U, ehief friend was Jan

do Witt the heroic RepubUcan leader against the growing ascendancy of the House of Orange. The Netherlands were at this hmc rent by fierce religious and political animosities. In an outburst of mob fury Jan de Witt and his brothe were brutally murdered. When Spinoza heard of it, he for the first and 1 only t,n l° in . h » lost control of himself, and broke into a passion of grief and rage. s In 1677, at the age of forty-five, he died of consumption. It was inherited from his mother; but was undoubtedly aggravated by under-feeding, over-work-ing, and the fine dust from the lenses which he had spent many a meditative hour m polishing for microscopes and telescopes Only two of his, works had been published in his lifetime. The remainder were published posthumously, including a largo mass of "Correspondence." Perhaps he would not have wished any other epitaph than the verdict of the Rijnsburg and Voorburg peasants: "A man whom it was good to know, kind, upright, obliging, and of good morals." And now let us turn for a few minutes to this compilation of Professor Wolf's. What are the facts about this little-known biography of Spinoza? When was it written? Who was its author? Why did it not bear the author's name? What is its quality? As to date, the internal evidence is practically conclusive; the book was written immediately after Spinoza's death, that is, in 1678. The writer speaks of Spinoza as "the late Mr de Spinosa." He regrets that Jie did not live to see the end of the "late war": that is, the war between France and Holland, 1672-1678. And, alluding to the end of the war, he uses the expression: "Now that the States-General are resuming the Government," which applies literally to 1678. Moreover, another war with France broke out in 1689, of which the writer knows nothing. . Further, the whole tone and spirit of the work aro those of a man who had been on close and even affectionate terms with the subject Of it. To the authorship there are only two claimants, both of whom were French refugees living in Holland. We may discard one of them, as the evidence in his favour is very slight. For the other the evidence is much stronger—Sieur J. M. Lucas —who was famous in many ways. The book was not published until 1719, when two editions appeared; and in the preface to each it is admitted that while thero is no absolute certainty as to authorship, it may be assumed with safety to be the work of "the late Mr Lucas," who had been I known to bo the friend and pupil of Spinoza. This Lucas had come of a | family of publishers. What exactly brought him from France to Holland may be guessed from his doings in Holland. He seems to have devoted his energies mainly to a violent campaign against Louis XIV.; so much so that Louis threatened to resume war against Holland if Lucas's mouth was not stopped. Occasionally the authorities suppressed one of his publications by way of pacifying Louis. And an interesting little fact, as bearing on the question of authorship, is this: Lucas's favourite paper as a channel for his attacks bore the name and it was a subsequent editor of this same magazine who, in 1719, first printed and published the "Life of Mrde Spinosa." Naturally, the question suggests itself—"Why did not Lucas put his name on the manuscript of nis "Life"? The answer lies in the bitter theological rancour, which not only pursued Spinoza all his life, but even after his death rendered it extremely dangerous for anyone f o express friendly sentiments or admiration -towards him, or write of him-with sympathy or kindVss, Publishers and friends were obliged to resort to all sorts of devices to "baffle the Inquisitors." Here is an amusing specimen. In 1670 there was brought out a French translation of the "Tractatus Theologico-Pohti-oub " It was published at Hamburg; and the issue was divided into three lots The name of the work imprinted on each lot was quite different from those on the other two; not only so, but not one of the three titles bore the slightest resemblance to the Latin iSe of the original work (« Wmw. intituled "The Key of the Sane +narv" !> But the contents or an three lots were absolutely i^cal This whole question of priority and authorship derives interest »»* "£ portance from the fact that up to ojite recent times the biography of Spinoza by Colerus was universally reg Kef oldest. (Latinised form of the German Kohler) came fo the Hague in 1693 as Minister of the Lutheran Church there, and by a happy coincidence lodged in the ldentical rooms which had been occupied by Spinoza in 1670-1671. He became interested in what he heard of Spmoza's personality; though, as a zealous Lutheran, he had no sympathy wrth IS teaching. In 1705 (14 years beStS). el™* y p e u a bnshl te > Dutch 7 "refutation" oi Spinoza's Biblical teaching "together with a precise bioSaphy of the same famous plulosofhe? compiled, etc," This, a. a higUy Respectable production enjoyed a considerable vogue; while the two or SSf'cSnWH-M. "«. *!*=:%' ft i,inns book was published in lay, n was at once pounced on as being cnbbed from Colerus! During the past 20 or dU J e rcZ '„ b Si Among otke, ?™%«££ fext and is English translation. He us tS 5 itord on the spirit and character'of the biography »£ very slight, occupying onlySo quarto pages of open fcStU funeral oration than a biographj. \VJ feel too, that the "*»'w^^ffi discipleship.