To the professional
metaphysician Spinoza's work is already surpassed, and is absorbed in
subsequent systems. We are told to read him once because he is
historically interesting, and then we are supposed to have done with
him. But if "Spinozism," as it is called, is but a stage of development
there is something in Spinoza which can be superseded as little as the
Imitation of Christ or the Pilgrim's Progress, and it is this which
continues to draw men to him. Goethe never cared for set philosophical
systems. Very early in life he thought he had found out that they were
useless pieces of construction, but to the end of his days he clung to
Spinoza, and Philina, of all persons in the world, repeats one of the
finest sayings in the Ethic. So far as the metaphysicians are
carpenters, and there is much carpentering in most of them, Goethe was
right, and the larger part of their industry endures wind and weather
but for a short time. Spinoza's object was not to make a scheme of the
universe. He felt that the things on which men usually set their hearts
give no permanent satisfaction, and he cast about for some means by
which to secure "a joy continuous and supreme to all eternity.
Pages:
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38