FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 15: It is not within the scope of the present essay to give a
life of Barach (or Benedict) de Spinoza. But for the sake of those to
whom the work of Sir Frederick Pollock is not easily accessible, the
following particulars may be given. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam,
November, 1632, of a fairly prosperous Jewish family, originally from
Portugal. He received thorough instruction in the language and
literature of the Hebrews, and in addition became a good Latin scholar,
so far as to write and correspond in that language. He was early
interested in philosophy, and especially attracted for a time by the
writings of Descartes. By the time he was twenty-three years old he was
suspected of heresy, and in his twenty-fourth year (1655) was cut off
from the Synagogue with a frightful curse. His family disowned him, and
for his maintenance he turned to the polishing of lenses, a trade
already learned in accordance with the Jewish custom that every boy must
have a handicraft. What he earned would hardly be considered a "living
wage" in these days. But according to Colerus, his first biographer, who
enquired of the householders with whom Spinoza lodged, his day's
maintenance of often cost no more than 4-1/2_d_. Various incidents
proved his total indifference to money, except as far as needed to
"provide things honest in the sight of all men." Though of an amiable
and sociable disposition he lived a solitary life, while not indisposed
to kindly talk with his humbler neighbours.
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