The Online Library of Liberty

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• On the Improvement of the Understanding.
• The Ethics.
• Part I.: Concerning God.
• Part II.: Of the Nature and Origin of the Mind.
• Part III.: On the Origin and Nature of the Emotions.
• Part IV.: Of Human Bondage, Or the Strength of the Emotions.
• Part V.: Of the Power of the Understanding, Or of Human Freedom.
• Spinoza’s Correspondence.
• Letter I. (i. 1 ): Henry Oldenburg 2 to B. De Spinoza.
• Letter II. (ii.): Spinoza to Oldenburg.
• Letter III. (iii.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter IV. (iv.): Spinoza to Oldenburg.
• Letter V. (v.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter VI. (vi.): Spinoza to Oldenburg.
• Letter VII. (vii.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter Viii (xi.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter IX. (xiii.): Spinoza to Oldenburg.
• Letters X.—XIV. 1: Letter XIII. A.: Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter XV. (xxxii.): Spinoza to Oldenburg.
• Letter XVI. (xxxiii.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter XVII. (lxi.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter XVIII. (lxii.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter XIX. (lxviii.): Spinoza to Oldenburg.
• Letter XX. (lxxi.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter XXI. (lxxiii.): Spinoza to Oldenburg.
• Letter XXII. (lxxiv.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter XXIII. (lxxv.): Spinoza to Oldenburg.
• Letter XXIV. (lxxvii.): Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter XXV. (lxxviii.)
• Letter XXV. A.: Oldenburg to Spinoza.
• Letter XXVI. (viii.): Simon De Vries 1 to Spinoza.
• Letter XXVII. (ix.): Spinoza to Simon De Vries.
• Letter XXVIII. (x.): Spinoza to Simon De Vries.
• Letter XXIX. (xii.): Spinoza to L. M. 1 (lewis Meyer).
• Letter XXIX. A. 1: Spinoza to Lewis Meyer.
• Letter XXX. (xvii.): Spinoza to Peter Balling. 1
• Letter XXXI. (xviii.): William De Blyenbergh 1 to Spinoza.
• Letter XXXII. (xix.): Spinoza to Blyenbergh.
• Letter XXXIII. (xx.): Blyenbergh to Spinoza.
• Letter XXXIV. (xxi.): Spinoza to Blyenbergh.
• Letter XXXV. (xxii.): Blyenbergh to Spinoza.
• Letter XXXVI. (xxiii.): Spinoza to Blyenbergh.
• Letter XXXVII. (xxiv.): Blyenbergh to Spinoza.
• Letter XXXVIII. (xxvii.): Spinoza to Blyenbergh.
• Letter XXXIX.: Spinoza to Christian Huyghens.
• Letter Xl. (xxxv.): Spinoza to Christian Huyghens.
• Letter Xli. (xxxvi.): Spinoza to Christian Huyghens.
• Letter Xli. A.: Spinoza to * * * * * 1 (may Or June, 1665).
• Letter Xlii. (xxxvii.): Spinoza to I. B. 1
• Letter Xliii. (xxxviii.): Spinoza to I. V. M. 1
• Letters Xliv., Xlv., Xlvi. (xxxix., Xl., Xli.): Spinoza to I. I. 2
• Xliv.
• Xlv.
• Xlvi.
• Letter Xlvii. (xliv.): Spinoza to I. I.
• Letter Xlviii.
• Letter Xlix.: Spinoza to Isaac Orobio. 1
• Letter L. (l.): Spinoza to Jarig Jellis.
• Letter Li. (xlv.): Godfrey Leibnitz to Spinoza.
• Letter Lii. (xlvi.): Spinoza to Leibnitz.
• Letter Liii. (xlvii.): Fabritius to Spinoza.
• Letter Liv. (xlviii.): Spinoza to Fabritius.
• Letter Lv. (li.): Hugo Boxel to Spinoza.
• Letter Lvi. (lii.): Spinoza to Hugo Boxel.
• Letter Lvii. (liii.): Hugo Boxel to Spinoza.
• Letter Lviii. (liv.): Spinoza to Hugo Boxel.
• Letter Lix. (lv.): Hugo Boxel to Spinoza.
• Letter Lx. (lvi.): Spinoza to Hugo Boxel.
• Letter Lxi. (lvii.): * * * * * to Spinoza. 1
• Letter Lxii. (lviii.): Spinoza to * * * * * 2 (the Hague, October, 1674).
• Letter Lxiii. (lix.): * * * * * to Spinoza. 1
• Letter Lxiv. (lx.): Spinoza to * * * * *. 1
• Letter Lxv. (lxiii.): G. H. Schaller to Spinoza. 1
• Letter Lxvi. (lxiv.): Spinoza to * * * * *. 1
• Letter Lxvii. (lxv.): * * * * * 1 to Spinoza.
• Letter Lxviii. (lxvi.): Spinoza to * * * * *. 1
• Letter Lxviii. A.: G. H. Schaller to Spinoza.
• Letter Lxviii. B.: Spinoza to Schaller.
• Letter Lxix. (lxxx.): * * * * * 1 to Spinoza.
• Letter Lxx. (lxxxi.): Spinoza to * * * * * 1
• Letter Lxxi. (lxxxii.): * * * * * 1 to Spinoza.
• Letter Lxxii. (lxxxiii.): Spinoza to * * * * 1
• Letter Lxxiii. (lxvii.): Albert Burgh to Spinoza.
• Letter Lxxiv. (lxxvi.): Spinoza to Albert Burgh.
• Letter Lxxv. (lxix.): Spinoza to Lambert Van Velthuysen ( Doctor of Medicine At Utrecht. ) 1

LETTER XX. (LXXI.)

Oldenburg to Spinoza.

As I see from your last letter, the book you propose to publish is in peril. It is impossible not to approve your purpose of illustrating and softening down those passages in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, which have given pain to its readers. First I would call attention to the ambiguities in your treatment of God and Nature: a great many people think you have confused the one with the other. Again, you seem to many to take away the authority and value of miracles, whereby alone, as nearly all Christians believe, the certainty of the divine revelation can be established.

Again, people say that you conceal your opinion concerning Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, the only Mediator for mankind, and concerning His incarnation and redemption: they would like you to give a clear explanation of what you think on these three subjects. If you do this and thus give satisfaction to prudent and rational Christians, I think your affairs are safe. Farewell.

London, 15 Nov., 1675.

P.S.—Send me a line, I beg, to inform me whether this note has reached you safely.