The Crusaders go in Procession to Mass, preparatory to The Song of the Tea-kettle. The Squire's Pew. 1783-1824 10463 The Philosopher's Scales. BARUCH SPINOZA, SPINOZA, BARUCH, a famous Dutch philosopher, of Jewish parentage; born at Amsterdam, November 24, 1632; died at The Hague, February 21, 1677. He Latinized his name of Baruch into BENEDICTUS, by which he is usually designated. He received a careful Rabbinical training; but at an early age he began to hold heterodox opinions, and was repeatedly summoned before a Rabbinical Council. As he failed to appear, the anathema maranatha was pronounced against him in 1656. At the urgency of the Rabbis he was banished from Amsterdam, and finally took up his residence at The Hague, where he devoted himself to speculative philosophy. In 1673 he was offered a professorship in the University of Marburg, which he declined. During his lifetime Spinoza put forth several profound treatises, but he withheld several of his most notable works, which were not published until after his death. Among these are the "Ethica," the "Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione," the "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus." The First Book of his "Ethica" contains a series of "Definitions" and 'Axioms," which may be regarded as the basis of his philosophical system. SUPERSTITION AND FEAR. MEN would never be superstitious if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favored by fortune; but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune's greedily coveted favors, they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to credulity. The human mind is readily swerved this way or that in times of doubt, especially when hope and fear are struggling for the mastery; though usually it is boastful, over-confident, and vain. This as a general fact I suppose every one knows, though few, I believe, know their own nature: no one can have lived in the world without observing that most people, when in pros VOL. XIX. — -1 |