The Remaining Works of Benedictus de Spinoza

whether he abhors them or keeps his distance, he will nevertheless be unable to stop loving a mind that felt it "could be nourished solely by love toward an eternal and infinite thing," and which "by assiduous meditation arrived at the point where it saw that by omitting" the desire for wealth, lust, and honors, it would be omitting nothing but certain evils; but in the very investigation of the true good, even if it might not perhaps attain it, it knew beforehand that "a certain good" would nevertheless be obtained. Finally, inflamed by this pursuit, it seriously and, as far as possible, continuously placed before its 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 mind a participant in the true good, even though it might seem that it did not always reach the proposed goal with equal success in its investigation of truth (as is common for the lot of mortals!).

Although there are two things in Benedictus that I, for one, shall never cease to admire and love—first, that candid purity of mind with which he pursued the true good, superior to any superstition either through hope or fear by internal strength; and second, the marvelous simplicity and indivisible connection of the system he devised in his entire mode of thinking—nevertheless, as far as I can grasp, two things seem to have hindered this architect of a most excellently coherent system from guarding himself sufficiently against the human tendency toward error while laying his foundations.