during 1665, and seriously hindered the work of the Royal Society. He moralises on the inhumanity of warfare, d propos of the war that was being waged between England and Holland in the same year. And he wants to know what Spinoza and also the Jews of Amsterdam think of the <( rumour which is on everybody's lips here that the Jews are about to return to Palestine." This had reference to the escapades of the impostor Sabbatai Zevi, who began as a pseudo-Messiah and ended as an apostate, but whose pretences, aided by the incessant sufferings of the Jews, deceived for a time even the Amsterdam Jews, whose opinion Oldenburg was curious to know — prayers being offered up in the Amsterdam Synagogue for "the King Messiah," and some new prayer-books being dated " the year one of the Messiah "! It would be interesting to know what Spinoza thought about this tragi-comedy. But just at this point the correspondence between Spinoza and Oldenburg comes to an abrupt end. The next letter between them, at least of those which are still extant, was written some ten years later. Possibly there were other letters, or it may be that the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the continued war between England and Holland (in which Bremen, Oldenburg's native city, sided with England) made further correspondence impracticable for a time; while in 1667 Oldenburg was actually imprisoned in the Tower of London, charged with "dangerous plans and practices," the vagueness of which suggests that it was simply his vast foreign correspondence that had made him an object of suspicion to a king who was too much of an adept at intrigue not to suspect every body, and to a government which had no appreciation of a man who had "taken to task the whole universe." Oldenburg was eventually released; but his sad experiences had made him nervous and circumspect, as we shall see.
Among other correspondence, that with William van Blyenbergh is noteworthy at once as a study in cross-pur- THE LIFE OF SPINOZA Ixxiii poses, when people argue from totally different standpoints, and also as illustrating the patience of Spinoza. Blyen bergh, a merchant of Dordrecht, had read Spinoza's version of Descartes' Principia several times with pleasure and profit, as he informed Spinoza. But finding certain diffi culties in that book he ventured to ask Spinoza (in a letter dated December 1664) for further explanations, assuring him, at the same time, that his questions were prompted by no other motive than the desire for truth, as he was not dependent on any profession, supporting himself by honest merchandise, and simply devoting his leisure to problems of religious philosophy. Spinoza thought that here was a man after his own heart, and gladly hastened to deal with his difficulties. These difficulties turned chiefly on the problem of evil — God's responsibility for the existence of evil, and the apparent reduction of good and evil to the same moral level, on the views of Spinoza. In the course of his lengthy and rather garrulous epistles Blyenbergh made it quite clear that he followed both Reason and Revelation, but that whenever these conflicted then the Scriptures had precedence over Reason. From such a standpoint, of course, the correspondence was bound to be futile from the first, but Spinoza dealt most patiently and gently with Blyenbergh, as long as human patience could endure it, and brought the correspondence to a close in June 1665. In due course Blyenbergh requited Spinoza's long suffering by writing " refutations " of his Tractates Theologico-Politicus and his Ethica, for the deep thoughts of which he could design no holier origin than Hell!
From one of Spinoza's letters, written in June 1665, it appears that, by that time, his Ethics had advanced as far as the end of what is now the fourth book, and that Spinoza expected to finish it shortly. In a letter, however, which Oldenburg wrote to Spinoza in September of the same year he remarks jestingly: " I see that you are not so much Ixxiv INTRODUCTION philosophising as, if one may say so, theologising; since your thoughts are turning to angels, prophecy, and miracles." Evidently Spinoza had informed him that he was already at work on what was to be the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. And in his reply to Oldenburg's letter, Spinoza writes (Sep tember or October 1665) quite explicitly that he is writing a Treatise on the Scriptures. The Ethica, then, must have been put aside suddenly, just as it was nearing completion, arid for the next four years or so we find Spinoza hard at work on his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. This certainly seems strange. What was the cause of this sudden change in the direction of his thoughts?
In his letter to Oldenburg, Spinoza states three reasons which prompted him to take up the new Treatise. In the first place, he wanted to deal with the theologians, whose prejudices were the chief obstacle which prevented people from becoming philosophical. Spinoza intended to expose these prejudices, and even hoped to convert some of the more intelligent divines. In the second place, he wanted to refute the charge of atheism which was constantly brought against him. In the third place, he wanted to defend by every means in his power freedom of thought and speech from the tyranny and presumption of the clergy, who were doing their utmost to suppress it. To appreciate these reasons adequately it is necessary to make a brief survey of the historical circumstances which seemed to call for such a book as the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, the need for which must evidently have appeared very urgent to Spinoza to have made him put aside his great work, just as it was nearing completion, in order to attack these mixed problems of theology and politics.
Spinoza, we have seen, was anxious to win the favour of the men who were in power, so that he might publish his philosophy without let or hindrance. Such patronage was indispensable in those days, for the sake of both the thinker THE LIFE OF SPINOZA Ixxv and his thoughts. Descartes, for instance, did not feel safe, notwithstanding his most ceremonious bows to the Church; and even in the Netherlands, where there was neither occasion nor inclination to study the susceptibilities of the holy Roman Church, the Cartesian philosophy met with considerable clerical resistance, and was repeatedly forbidden to be taught at the Universities. Although the civil authori ties were generally inclined to be liberal, yet the Calvinist or Reformed Clergy often had sufficient power to cause the confiscation and destruction of books to which they took exception, and the authors of such books were occasionally made to surfer both in purse and in person. Spinoza's desire to win the favour and protection of those in power was therefore natural enough. And he succeeded almost better than he could have expected. For he enlisted the sympathy of no less a personage than the Grand Pensionary himself — Jan de Witt. His very success, however, in a way defeated his primary object, by diverting his attention from purely philo sophical problems. How this happened will soon be evident. Reference has already been made to the struggle between the Remonstrants and the contra-Remonstrants, and the tragic fate of the Remonstrant leader, Barneveldt, in 1619.
That conflict was by no means a purely religious conflict. Church and State, Religion and Politics, if not quite so in timately united as elsewhere, were anything but completely divorced even in the Netherlands. Politically that conflict was one between the principle of autonomy of each of the United Provinces, and especially of Holland, and the prin ciple of the predominance of the House of Orange. In that early conflict, Barneveldt stood for the former principle, Maurice, the Stadtholder (or so-called " Lieutenant," but virtual or would-be monarch), for the latter. Though Barneveldt came to an end in 1619, the conflict did not; it only required a suitable opportunity tc break out afresh. In 1650, the Stadtholder y William II., chagrined Ixxvi INTRODUCTION because of the independent attitude of Amsterdam, arrested its five chief burghers, among them Jacob de Witt. They were released soon afterwards and deprived of their office. But their bitter resentment may be gauged by the fact that, on the death of William II., in 1651, de Witt had a medal struck representing William II. lying dead on the ground, with the motto, Liberty for ever! The years which followed were years of great anxiety for the Netherlands. Cromwell, prompted by the Utopian idea of a European Protestant Coalition, proposed to the States-General of the Netherlands that they should suffer themselves to be absorbed by Eng land. When this was declined, he brought the " Naviga tion Act " into operation with a view to crippling the Dutch shipping trade. War followed. But negotiations were soon reopened, and peace was concluded in 1654. It was during these troubles that Jan de Witt, the brilliant son of Jacob de Witt, got and used his opportunity. In 1653 he had been elected Grand Pensionary of Holland, and it was largely through his skill that the peace negotiations with England came to a successful issue in the following year. Unfortunately for de Witt, Cromwell, in his anxiety to keep Charles II. at a safe distance, stipulated as one of the con ditions of peace that the young Prince of Orange (son of William II., and nephew of Charles II.) should be made in eligible for the posts of Stadtholder and Captain-General of the Netherlands forces. And, knowing that most of the United Provinces would strongly resent the very sugges tion of such a condition, de Witt had to persuade the Hollanders to bind themselves at least to such a secret " Act of Seclusion." This, of course, was bound to inten sify the opposition between the de Witts and the House of Orange, and to lead to a fresh conflict between the Repub lican and the Monarchist parties in the Netherlands. The House of Orange, largely owing to its early alliance (in the days of Barneveldt) with the orthodox majority, eventu- THE LIFE OF SPINOZA Ixxvii ally realised their monarchical ambitions, and the de Witts, whose broad tolerance and republican zeal made them more like William the Silent than were his own descendants, were destined to meet with a tragic end. But all that was still to come. At the time with which we are at present concerned Jan de Witt was still the Grand Pensionary of Holland, and virtually the head of the United Provinces. Still, he had his enemies. His very tolerance gained for him the secret opposition of the Reformed Clergy, who were bent on Calvinising everybody and everything. And the Orange party were assiduous in cultivating the friendship of the Calvinists. The one radical safeguard for the maintenance of the Republic, as de Witt must have seen, lay in widen ing the outlook of its citizens, so that politics might be purged of religious animosities, and people might live at peace with each other, and co-operate in all national enter prises, without regard to their private views on matters which did not affect their conduct as citizens. In 1665, during the wars with England and Sweden, when the Dutch were so hard pressed that they had to employ French troops, the voice of discontent made itself heard in various quarters, and Calvinist prophets made capital out of these tem porary trials by proclaiming them to be visitations sent from heaven in punishment of the godlessness of the country's rulers, and clamoured that the young Prince of Orange should be set in supreme authority to make the country more godly. " Moses and Aaron, the Sword and the Word," they cried, must always go hand in hand.
Already before this, Jan de Witt seems to have urged or encouraged various writers, who shared his views, to use their pen in support of his policy of tolerance, in short, in support of the separation between Church and State. One such book was written by his own nephew and namesake, others were written by Dr. Lodewijk Meyer and other members of the Spinoza circle, and Jan de Witt himself is Ixxviii I NTRODUCTION said to have written or contributed some chapters to such a political pamphlet. It seems natural enough, therefore, that at such a critical period Spinoza, the " good republican," should layaside his more speculative £//MOZ in order to playhis part in the warfare against bigotryand intolerance. He would expose the prejudices, presumption, and the lust for power of the clerical party. But it was idle simply to add one more poli tical pamphlet to the multitude in which the principle of freedom of thought and speech had already been ably de fended on general philosophical and humanitarian grounds. The zealots were deaf and blind to such arguments. To them philosophy meant heresy, and humanism meant atheism. The citadel of the clerics was the Bible. From it they drew all their arguments with which they so often silenced people, even when they failed to convince them. Spinoza resolved to turn his attention to the citadel itself, leaving mere skirmishes to others. He would show that the very Bible on which these presumptuous theologians based their whole case did not bear them out at all, that they were simply ignorant of these very Scriptures, and that they used religion and the Bible merely as a cloak for their own im pudent lust for power over others. Such a work required vast and varied learning and insight — but Spinoza (and at that time perhaps he alone) had them in an eminent degree. Andit required time — perhaps more than Spinoza anticipated. But Spinoza grudged neither time nor effort, and for the next four years he was deeply engrossed in theological and political studies, which resulted in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. Interfused with this wider, grander motive there was yet another, a private or personal motive. He desired to show (as he wrote to Oldenburg in the autumn of 1665) that he was not an atheist, as was commonly supposed. By the time Spinoza finished his treatise he had probably forgotten all about this private aim. If he was really still anxious to convert public opinion about himself, he could scarcely hope THE LIFE OF SPINOZA Ixxix to do so by publishing his treatise anonymously, as he did in 1670. The fact is that although his personal experiences added zest to his enterprise in 1665, they gradually sank into the background as he proceeded with his work. But in any case it is interesting to ask what these personal expe riences were. One naturally thinks, at first, of his excom munication in 1656. But that was an old story already, and Spinoza was at that time hardly concerned much, if at all, about the good opinion of the Amsterdam Jews. It will be better to turn to Voorburg, and to what happened there in 1665, for light on this subject. It was not an important event to which we are referring, but it is interesting as an incident in Spinoza's life, and as typical of the religious temper of the time. The pastorate of the Voorburg Church happened to be vacant in that year. There were two can didates in the field, one liberal, the other orthodox. Spinoza's landlord and others petitioned the authorities on behalf of the more liberal candidate. Thereupon the ortho dox party sent a counter-petition accusing the Tydemann party of sheer wickedness, and stating at the same time that the Tydemann petition had been " concocted by a certain Spinoza, an Amsterdam Jew by birth, who is an atheist, scoffs at all religion, and is inflicting harm on the Republic, as many learned persons and ministers can attest." Evidently Spinoza had an evil repute among the champions of ortho doxy in the village, though it is pleasant to think that the more liberal section showed sufficient faith in him to enlist his sympathy and help even in their religious concerns.
In the course of the same year Spinoza had a distinguished visitor in the person of Field-Marshal Charles de St. Denis, Seigneur de St. Evremont, who has left us a pleasant record of his impression. " Spinoza [he wrote] was of medium height and had pleasant features. His knowledge, his modesty, and his unselfishness made all the intellectual people in the Hague esteem him and seek his acquaintance."
Ixxx INTRODUCTION Spinoza remained in Voorburg till 1670, but not many details have reached us about him even during this period. He kept in touch with his Amsterdam friends, to whom he sent his manuscript of the Ethics for reading and discussion at their philosophical society's gatherings. Some of them, notably Simon de Vries, also visited him at Voorburg. That Spinoza's health was not robust is evident from his letter to one of his medical friends at Amsterdam (A. Koerbagh), to whom he incidentally mentions that he had been suffering repeatedly from tertian ague, and asks him for some con serve of roses. It was about this time apparently that Simon de Vries wanted Spinoza to accept from him a gift of two thousand florins. Simon de Vries died in 1667, and his death must have been felt very deeply by Spinoza. The following year, 1668, brought bad news about another of his friends. Adriaan Koerbagh, whom Spinoza got to know at Rijnsburg, had studied law and medicine at Leyden, and was possessed of considerable mental gifts. Spinoza liked him, and encouraged him in the study of philosophy, and in the above-mentioned letter he actually offered to send him the manuscript of the Ethics. But, though clever, Koerbagh seems to have had little or no character. At all events, early in 1668 he published two works, entitled A Garden of Flowers, and Light in Dark Places, in which he attacked medicine, morals, and religion in a most wanton and shameless manner. He was promptly arrested, and though he expressed regret and recanted, yet (as this was not his first offence) he was fined 6000 florins and con demned to ten years' imprisonment with hard labour, to be followed by exile. It should be mentioned to his honour that he entirely exonerated his brother, who had also been arrested; and when Spinoza's name was mentioned in the course of the trial he took the entire responsibility upon himself, emphatically denying that Spinoza or any one else was in any way responsible for what he had written. However THE LIFE OF SPINOZA Ixxxi little there may be to say in Koerbagh's favour, yet the punishment was certainly savage. And one of the officers of the court had actually urged something much more severe, namely, that his fortune should be confiscated, his right thumb cut off, his tongue bored through with a red-hot iron, and that he should be imprisoned for thirty years! Koerbagh died in prison in the following year. The affair must have made a deep impression on Spinoza, who had expected much from him, and some of whose views Koerbagh had certainly assimilated and spread — though Spinoza was the last man to condone immorality.
In the meantime Spinoza had been busy with his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, and it was published in 1670. He had now been seven years at Voorburg, and he may have needed a change, or his friends at the Hague may have urged him to come and live among them. At all events Spinoza left the village, and went to live in the Hague.
Spinoza's first lodgings in the Hague were situated on the Stille Veerkade, a quiet wharf not far from the Great Church of St. James. He lodged and boarded with a widow of the name of Van Velen. A single room on the second floor served him as bedroom, workroom, and study, all in one. Curiously enough, it was in that same room that Colerus subsequently wrote one of the earliest bio graphies of Spinoza. The house has been identified (it bears the number 32) but it has, no doubt, been very much altered since those days; and the Stille Veerkade is no longer a wharf, but an ordinary street, the waterway having been filled up with earth long since.
Probably one of the attractions which the Hague had Ixxxii INTRODUCTION for Spinoza was that it brought him into closer touch with Jan de Witt. That he had known him for some time already seems certain. The political views of the Tractatus Theo- logico-Politicus are very like those of the Grand Pensionary, and it was under his protection that this treatise had been published. When the opportunity arose, de Witt's enemies spoke quite openly of the treatise as a wicked instrument "forged in hell by a renegade Jew and the devil, and issued with the knowledge of Mr. Jan de Witt." It was probably also during his stay in Voorburg, and while giving his time and energy to the composition of the Tractatus Theologico- Politicus, that Spinoza accepted from de Witt an annual pension of 200 florins, which was paid even after de Witt's death. Once in the Hague, Spinoza must have re ceived many a visit from the Grand Pensionary; and local gossip, indeed, still refers to such private visits from him, and his usual entrance by the garden door at the back of the house.
The need of protection from high quarters showed itself soon enough. Already in the June following the publica tion of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, the Church Council of Amsterdam had condemned it, and the condemnation of other Church Councils followed in rapid succession. The book had made a great stir in the learned world, and ran through five editions within a comparatively short time. But it had stirred a hornei's nest, and, for many years to come, theologians and other respectable folks showed their orthodoxy by incessant denunciations of that godless treatise. The civil authorities were repeatedly approached and worried to exercise the arm of the law. But so long as de Witt was in power the importunate zealots were success fully resisted. Even after de Witt's death there were men, like Burgomaster Hudde, who could, for a time, defeat the efforts of the clerics. But when William III. found it desirable to ingratiate himself with the clergy and the mob, THE LIFE OF SPINOZA Ixxxiii and to play to the gallery for a crown, the Tractatus Theo- logico-Politicus was strictly prohibited (1674), and other measures were contemplated also against the known author of the anonymous treatise.
In May 1671 Spinoza found it necessary to change his lodgings. He was in receipt of 300 florins a year from the brother of Simon de Vries, and 200 florins a year from de Witt, that is, about ^£40 a year, besides what little he may have been still earning by making lenses. He found that he could not afford to continue to pay Mrs. Van Velen's charges for board and lodging, and therefore looked out for rooms where he might provide his own food, and econo mise that way. He accordingly moved into the adjoining Paviljoensgmgt, where he rented two small rooms in the house of a painter, Hendrik van der Spyck. This house has also been identified, and may now be recognised by the tablet affixed to the front wall just below the window on the second story, where Spinoza's rooms were. Here also the "gragt," or waterway, has long since made room for an ordinary road. Spinoza lived with the Van der Spycks till the end of his life.