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THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION
WALTER ECKSTEIN
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I54 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION
say that Powell's arguments are by no Thus the real meaning of the seal would
not indicate any timidity on Spinoza's
means convincing. It was really the rule
in Spinoza's time to publish books on po-
part but rather testify to his courage and
litical and religious subjects anonymous-
his willingness to fight for his convictions.
ly, particularly when they dealt with There is other evidence in Spinoza's
such controversial subjects as did the
life to support this interpretation of his
character. We hear that when the
Theological-Political Treatise. Moreover,
brothers De Witt, whose liberal politics
as J. G. Prat in the Preface to his French
translation of the Treatise suggests, hadit been the object of Spinoza's whole-
may be true that one of the reasons whichhearted approval and admiration, wer
induced Spinoza to publish the book brutally murdered by a frenzied mob
without his and the publisher's name on Spinoza's landlord had to lock the doo
the title-page was the intention to pro-of the house to keep Spinoza from pub
tect his publisher, Jan Rieuwertsz. licly protesting against the savage deed
On the other hand, the warning in the His biographer, Colerus, tells us that h
Short Treatise not to spread the doctrines
saw or rather possessed a book of draw
of this book indiscriminately among ings made by Spinoza; among them was
strangers was certainly an act of caution
a self-portrait of Spinoza, representing
which, as the general outburst against
him in the costume of Masaniello, th
the Theological-Political Treatise proved,
head of the rebels of Naples, who led hi
seems to have been entirely justified. people against the Spaniards and who, a
Even less conclusive is the argumentGebhardt once put it, represented to th
taken from the inscription on Spinoza's seventeenth century the genius of revolu-
tion.
signet ring. The Spinoza scholar, Carl
Gebhardt, has pointed out that the As a young man cut off from his family
meaning of this inscription is quite dif-
and from his religious community and
ferent from what Powell's interpretation
yet, through all his life, preserving hi
would suggest.2 The seal shows a rose
inner unperturbedness and steadfast
surrounded by the letters B.D.S.-forness, Spinoza came very close to tha
Benedictus de Spinoza-and the LatinStoic ideal of the sage which he himsel
word Caute. Upon closer inspection onehas renewed in his Ethics under the name
realizes that the rose has some extraordi- of the Free Man. He was in his later
narily long thorns. Thus the picture on years exposed to all kinds of dangers.
the seal must have reminded the Latin- The Theological-Political Treatise, with
speaking reader of Spinoza's own name,its very liberal views-liberal even for
as in Latin a thorny rose would be Rosa the Netherlands, the freest country of
spinosa. Moreover, it seems obvious that Europe-was forbidden by one church
the warning implied in the word Cautesynod after another and finally even by
was not intended for the writer of the let-the public authorities of Holland. Its au-
ter on which the seal was to be impressed thor, who had been very soon discovered,
but for the addressee. He read the seal: was menaced with personal persecution,
particularly after William III came to
"Beware of Spinoza; he is thorny."3
power.
2Carl Gebhardt in Chronicon Spinozanum, IV,
265 ff.
motto, Nemo me impune lacessit, which accompanies
31 am indebted to Professor John T. McNeill the representation of the thistle. Apparently this is
for having drawn my attention to the Scottish a similar "talking coat of arms."
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THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN SPINOZA'S PHILOSOPHY I55
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I56 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION
9 Tract. brev., I, 2, "Second Dialogue" (Opera, " Balling's Het Licht op den Kandeaar has been
I, 34). The translation is by A. Wolf of Spinoza'sreprinted by Carl Gebhardt in Chronicon Spinozan-
Short Treatise on God, Man and His Well-Being um, Vol. IV. Cf. also Gebhardt, "Die Religion
(I9IO), p. 40. Spinozas," Archiv fir Geschichte der Philosophie,
XLI, 333 ff. which deals particularly with Spinoza's
o1 The genuine character of this confession has relation to the Collegiants. Both Balling and Jelles
been questioned, as it seems to follow certain tradi- seem to have been influenced by Spinoza; on the
tional patterns. It may be particularly noticed other hand, the Short Treatise was probably trans-
that Spinoza himself in one of his letters (Epist. lated into Dutch and revised by Balling and Jelles,
XLIII) emphasizes that he never had been inter- respectively.
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THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN SPINOZA'S PHILOSOPHY I57
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I58 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION
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THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN SPINOZA'S PHILOSOPHY I59
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i6o THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION
fact, is what constitutes Nature, not as it is Harald Hoffding has recognized that Spi-
evolved in things but rather as it is the source
and mover of all evolution.27
noza rejects the conception of value only
where it is applied to individual, special
The idea of a fixus et immutabilis ordophenomena of nature. But Spinoza him-
naturae is so essential to Spinoza's philos-self applies it to the innermost essence
ophy in all its phases that it may well beand the supreme law of nature by identi-
called one of the fundamental elements fying nature and God.29 It has not been
of his religious outlook. In the sixth sufficiently realized, as far as I can see,
chapter of his Theological-Political Trea- that, in rejecting value predicates in their
tise, where he repeatedly refers to this application to reality, Spinoza is most
immutable order of nature, he expressly anxious to refute any negative evaluation
states that any event which would de- of nature. To take only a few examples:
stroy or break this order would make In usthe Short Treatise30 he contends that
doubtful of God and of everything and there is no confusion (Verwarringe) in na-
our belief in the possibility of such an ture, since nobody knows all the causes
event would lead us into the arms of of things so as to be able to judge accord-
atheism. ingly. As he does here, Spinoza in other
It is true, Spinoza says that concepts writings also declares our lack of knowl-
such as order and confusion are relative edge the real reason why we think we find
to our power of imagination or thinking. imperfection in nature. But, he says
We speak of order or confusion, of beautyin his Theological-Political Treatise-and
or ugliness, in proportion as things areagain in the Political Treatise-whatever
seems ridiculous, bad, or absurd in na-
likely to delight or disgust our senses or
our imagination.28 However, upon closer ture seems so only because we know
things only in part. And he declares in
investigation, we realize that the kind of
order which Spinoza rejects is really anEpistola XXX to Oldenburg:
external or superimposed concept of or- I do not think it right for me to laugh at
der as of an aesthetically pleasant ar-
Nature, much less to weep over it, when I con-
sider that men, like the rest are only a part of
rangement that would delight our senses.
What he, however, admits is the regularNature and that I do not know how each part
of Nature is connected with the whole of it,
adaptation and coherence of the individ-
and how with the other parts. And I find that
ual things and happenings to each other,
it is from the mere want of this kind of knowl-
a cohaerentia partium, meaning, as Spi-edge that certain things in Nature were formerly
wont
noza explains to Oldenburg, that "the to appear to me vain, disorderly, and ab-
laws, or nature, of one part adapt them-surd, because I perceive them only in part and
mutilated and they do not agree with our philo-
selves to the laws, or nature, of another
sophic mind.
part in such a way as to produce the
least possible opposition." There are many passages in Spinoza's
Moreover, there can be no doubt that Ethics which express the same thought.
In the Preface to the third part of the
in Spinoza's mind a definite positive val-
ue was attached to this order of nature. Ethics Spinoza stresses the fact that
nothing happens in nature which could
27R. P. McKeon, The Philosophy of Spinoza
(New York, 1928), p. 69. 29 Hoffding, Spinozas Ethica, Analyse und Char-
akteristik (Heidelberg, I924), p. 30.
28Ethics, Part I, Appen.; Epist. XXX and
XXXII; Cog. met., I, 5. 30 Tract. brev., I, 6 (Opera, I, 4I).
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THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN SPINOZA'S PHILOSOPHY i6i
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I62 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION
itself limited within the Ptolemaic the way to ethical living and to that ulti-
spheres-and no longer was theremate
anysalvation for which he had been
separation between the sublunar andsearching
the in his earlier writings. To him
sidereal realm and their respectiveitlaws.
seems the supreme ethical law to sub-
Infinity, necessity, and unity-thesemit to that eternal order of which man
were the principles upon which the is new
but a part and to accept cheerfully
whatever it may have in store for us.
world of the just arising natural sciences
was based. This new world found its Thus only may we hope to find the true
highest philosophic expression in Spino-
happiness which, he already states in his
za's system. The peasant in Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise, lies in vir-
Short Treatise who for the first time dis-
tue alone and in peace of mind.
covers that there are other fields beyond It has been said that Spinoza's way of
salvation, like Plato's, is the way of in-
the borders of his own may well be taken
tellect.37 The "amor Dei intellectualis"
as a symbol of the science of the Renais-
sance which had left behind the limits and the "vera animi acquiescentia," of
and restrictions of Scholasticism and which he speaks in those solemn words in
opened the road to wider or rather towhichin- his Ethics ends as in a magnificent
finite perspectives. Spinoza's philosophy
final chord, can be reached only through
presupposes this new scientific outlook the right kind of knowledge. There is no
and transforms it into the higher visionother way but reason. "What altar," Spi-
of a new faith. Not a faith in miracles noza exclaims in his Theological-Political
and not a faith in some paternal provi-Treatise, "could a man build himself who
dence-already in his Short Treatise ne-offends the majesty of reason!"
cessity and the tendency to preserve Some philosophers have characterized
one's own existence take the place of di-
Spinoza's position as a religion of reason38
vine foresight-but a faith in an ulti- or as a religio philosophica as opposed to
mate rationality of the world. Harald
a religio mythologica.39 The essential
Hoffding says that what Spinoza calls
point seems to us that Spinoza was the
"substance" is the principle of an inner first to accept the results of the natural
rational connection between all phenom- sciences of our modern time and to build
ena.35 It was this rationality that to Spi-
upon these fundaments the structure of
noza seemed to guarantee at the same a new faith which Santayana once quite
time the possibility of true knowledgeappropriately called a religion of science.40
and of man's beatitude. Man is able to
37 Thus W. G. de Burgh, "Spinoza," Philosophy,
understand God as he really is or to form
XI (I936), 274.
adequate ideas of him and of all things- 38 H. A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of Spinoza, II,
as far as they are understood sub quadam
325; cf. also Dunin Borkowski, Spinoza, IV (Miin-
ster, 1936), 75.
specie aeternitatis-because there is this
39 Carl Gebhardt, "Die Religion Spinoza,"
rational order in nature. It is the logical
outcome of this attitude for Spinoza Archiv
to fur Geschichte der Philosophie, Vol. XLI
(1932); cf. his article, "Religio metaphysica," in
consider everything to be against reason
Septimana Spinozana (The Hague, I933), pp. 134 ff.;
which is against nature.36 cf. also J. Freudenthal, Spinoza, Leben und Lehre,
ed. C. Gebhardt (Heidelberg, 1927), II, 75: "....
It is reason which to Spinoza opens
seine Religion ist die Religion der Erkenntnis."
35 "Spinoza, 1677-1927," Chronicon Spinozanum, 40 G. Santayana, "The Ethical Doctrine of
V, 48. Spinoza," Harvard Monthly, II (I886), I45; cf. also
36 Tract. theol.-pol., cap. vi (Opera, III, 91). "Ultimate Religion," in Septimana Spinozana.
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THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN SPINOZA'S PHILOSOPHY I63
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