The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 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 LXIX. (LXXX.)

* * * * *1to Spinoza.

Distinguished Sir,—

In the first place I can with great difficulty conceive, how it can be proved, à priori, that bodies exist having motion and figure, seeing that, in extension considered absolutely in itself, nothing of the kind is met with. Secondly, I should like to learn from you, how this passage in your letter on the infinite is to be understood:—“They do not hence infer that such things elude number by the multitude of their component parts.” For, as a matter of fact, all mathematicians seem to me always to demonstrate, with regard to such infinities, that the number of the parts is so great, as to elude all expression in terms of number. And in the example you give of the two circles, you do not appear to prove this statement,2 which was yet what you had undertaken to do. For in this second passage you only show, that they do not draw this conclusion from “the excessive size of the interveningspace,” or from the fact that “we do not know the maximum and the minimum of the said space;” but you do not demonstrate, as you intended, that the conclusion is not based on the multitude of parts, &c.

2 May, 1676.

[1 ] Tschirnhausen.

[2 ] Viz., “They do not hence infer . . . . component parts.”