Spinoza - 1882 Author:William Angus Knight Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II. THE LIFE AND CHARACTER Of BARUCH SPINOZA: A LECTUEE KUNO FISCHER, PKOFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT BEBLIN. TKANSLATED BY FEIDA SCHMIDT. THE LIF... more »E AND CHARACTER OF BARUCH SPINOZA. What I wish to describe is the secluded and solitary life of a lonely man—a life devoted to no other aim save that of pure thought—as far as it can be revealed, and is capable of disclosing itself to outward view. But how little does the outward view reach the essence of such a life! How apparently poor and monotonous are the external aspects of a life entirely devoted to contemplation ! The stirring events, the numerous exciting, varied, and striking incidents, which attract the imagination and supply the most grateful theme to the narrator, are wanting. To appreciate the quiet life of a thinker, we must regard it from, within. And that which never ceases to interest and instruct the student of human nature, who thus looks at it, is the harmony of the tendency of thought with the tendency of action, the reciprocal and mutually regulating effect of thought and life upon each other. Such a harmonious combination produces one of those rare characters which are at rest in themselves, which are made of one stuff throughout, and which live and act exactly as they think. I am well aware in what an unfavourable position I am placed, when I now attempt to set before you the life and character of one of the choicest of these men, without being able at preser.t to throw light upon that inner world of thought in which he lived. Spinoza's Historical Significance. I shall try therefore, whether, in a few words, I can indicate that tendency of thought, which was one with the tendency of personal life, in the character I endeavour to describe. It was part of the task of that new era, whi...« less