The Remaining Works of Benedict de Spinoza

or should he abhor or abstain, he will nevertheless not be able to avoid deeply loving a soul that felt it could be fed solely by "love toward an eternal and infinite thing," and who, through "assiduous meditation, arrived at the point where he saw that" by omitting the desire for wealth, lust, and honors, he would omit only certain evils; yet in the very investigation of the true good, even if he might not perhaps attain it, he foresaw that a "certain good" would be obtained. Inflamed by this study, he seriously and, as much as possible, continuously placed before his meditations the "knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole of nature." Truly a divine purpose, which could not but make the inquiring soul a participant in the "true good," even if through his "investigation of truth" (as is the common lot of mortals!) he seems not always to have attained the proposed goal with equal success.

Although there are two things in Benedictus Spinoza that I shall never cease to admire and love—first, that ingenuous quality of spirit by which he pursued the "true good," a chastity superior to any superstition, whether by hope or fear, through internal strength; and second, the marvelous simplicity of the system he devised and the inseparable connection in his entire line of thought—yet two things, as far as I can grasp, seem to have hindered this architect of a system so excellently coherent in itself from sufficiently guarding himself against the human proclivity toward error when laying his foundations.