The Online Library of Liberty A Project Of Liberty Fund, Inc. Benedict de Spinoza, The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1 (Tractatus-Theologico-Politicus, Tractatus Politicus) [1670] The Online Library Of Liberty This E-Book (PDF format) is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a private, non-profit, educational foundation established in 1960 to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. 2010 was the 50th anniversary year of the founding of Liberty Fund. It is part of the Online Library of Liberty web site http://oll.libertyfund.org, which was established in 2004 in order to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. To find out more about the author or title, to use the site's powerful search engine, to see other titles in other formats (HTML, facsimile PDF), or to make use of the hundreds of essays, educational aids, and study guides, please visit the OLL web site. This title is also part of the Portable Library of Liberty DVD which contains over 1,000 books and quotes about liberty and power, and is available free of charge upon request. The cuneiform inscription that appears in the logo and serves as a design element in all Liberty Fund books and web sites is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash, in present day Iraq. To find out more about Liberty Fund, Inc., or the Online Library of Liberty Project, please contact the Director at [email protected]. LIBERTY FUND, INC. 8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite 300 Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-1684 Online Library of Liberty: The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1 (Tractatus-Theologico- Politicus, Tractatus Politicus) Edition Used: The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, translated from the Latin, with an Introduction by R.H.M. Elwes, vol. 1 Introduction, Tractatus-Theologico-Politicus, Tractatus Politicus. Revised edition (London: George Bell and Sons, 1891). Author: Benedict de Spinoza Translator: Robert Harvey Monro Elwes About This Title: This volume contains 2 of Spinoza’s most important political works, the Theologico- Political Treatise and the posthumous Political Treatise. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 2 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1710 Online Library of Liberty: The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1 (Tractatus-Theologico- Politicus, Tractatus Politicus) About Liberty Fund: Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. Copyright Information: The text is in the public domain. Fair Use Statement: This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 3 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1710 Online Library of Liberty: The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1 (Tractatus-Theologico- Politicus, Tractatus Politicus) Table Of Contents Introduction. Preface. A Theologico-political Treatise. Chapter I.: Of Prophecy. Chapter II.: Of Prophets. Chapter III.: Of the Vocation of the Hebrews, and Whether the Gift of Prophecy Was Peculiar to Them. Chapter IV.: Of the Divine Law. Chapter V.: Of the Ceremonial Law. Chapter VI.: Of Miracles. Chapter VII.: Of the Interpretation of Scripture. Chapter VIII.: Of the Authorship of the Pentateuch and the Other Historical Books of the Old Testament. Chapter IX.: Other Questions Concerning the Same Books: Namely, Whether They Were Completely Finished By Ezra, And, Further, Whether the Marginal Notes Which Are Found In the Hebrew Texts Were Various Readings. Chapter X.: An Examination of the Remaining Books of the Old Testament According to the Preceding Method. Chapter XI.: An Inquiry Whether the Apostles Wrote Their Epistles As Apostles and Prophets, Or Merely As Teachers; and an Explanation of What Is Meant By an Apostle. Chapter XII.: Of the True Original of the Divine Law, and Wherefore Scripture Is Called Sacred, and the Word of God. How That, In So Far As It Contains the Word of God, It Has Come Down to Us Uncorrupted. Chapter XIII.: It Is Shown That Scripture Teaches Only Very Simple Doctrines, Such As Suffice For Right Conduct. Chapter XIV.: Definitions of Faith, the Faith, and the Foundations of Faith, Which Is Once For All Separated From Philosophy. Chapter XV.: Theology Is Shown Not to Be Subservient to Reason, Nor Reason to Theology: a Definition of the Reason Which Enables Us to Accept the Authority of the Bible. Chapter XVI.: Of the Foundations of a State; of the Natural and Civil Rights of Individuals; and of the Rights of the Sovereign Power. Chapter XVII.: It Is Shown That No One Can, Or Need, Transfer All His Rights to the Sovereign Power. of the Hebrew Republic, As It Was During the Lifetime of Moses, and After His Death, Till the Foundation of the Monarchy; and of Its Excellence. Lastly, O Chapter XVIII.: From the Commonwealth of the Hebrews, and Their History, Certain Political Doctrines Are Deduced. Chapter XIX.: It Is Shown That the Right Over Matters Spiritual Lies Wholly With the Sovereign, and That the Outward Forms of Religion Should Be In Accordance With Public Peace, If We Would Obey God Aright. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 4 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1710 Online Library of Liberty: The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1 (Tractatus-Theologico- Politicus, Tractatus Politicus) Chapter XX.: That In a Free State Every Man May Think What He Likes, and Say What He Thinks. From the Editor’s Preface to the Posthumous Works of Benedict De Spinoza. A Political Treatise. Chapter I.: Introduction. Chapter II.: Of Natural Right. Chapter III.: Of the Right of Supreme Authorities. Chapter IV.: Of the Functions of Supreme Authorities. Chapter V.: Of the Best State of a Dominion. Chapter VI.: Of Monarchy. Chapter VII.: Of Monarchy (continuation). Chapter VIII.: Of Aristocracy. Chapter IX.: Of Aristocracy. Continuation. Chapter X.: Of Aristocracy. Conclusion. Chapter XI.: Of Democracy. PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 5 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1710 Online Library of Liberty: The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1 (Tractatus-Theologico- Politicus, Tractatus Politicus) [Back to Table of Contents] INTRODUCTION. “Konstatiert ist es, das der Lebenswandel des Spinoza frei von allem Tadel war, und rein und makellos wie das Leben seines göttlichen Vetters, Jesu Christi. Auch wie Dieser litt er für seine Lehre wie Dieser trug er die Dornenkrone. Ueberall, wo ein grosser Geist seine Gedenken ausspricht, ist Golgotha.” —Heine. A VERY few years ago the writings of Spinoza were almost unknown in this country. The only authorities to which the English reader could be referred were the brilliant essays of Mr. Froude1 and Mr. Matthew Arnold,2 the graphic but somewhat misleading sketch in Lewes’s “History of Philosophy,” and the unsatisfactory volume of Dr. R. Willis.3 But in 1880 Mr. Pollock brought out his most valuable “Spinoza, his Life and Philosophy,”4 likely long to remain the standard work on the subject; Dr. Martineau has followed with a sympathetic and gracefully written “Study of Spinoza;” Professor Knight has edited a volume of Spinozistic Essays by Continental Philosophers; Auerbach’s biographical novel1 has been translated, and many writers have made contributions to the subject in magazines and reviews. At first sight this stir of tardy recognition may seem less surprising than the preceding apathy, for history can show few figures more remarkable than the solitary thinker of Amsterdam. But the causes which kept Spinoza in comparative obscurity are not very far to seek. Personally he shrank with almost womanly sensitiveness from anything like notoriety: his chief work was withheld till after his death, and then published anonymously; his treatise on Religion was also put forth in secret, and he disclaims with evident sincerity all desire to found a school, or give his name to a sect. Again, the form in which his principal work is cast is such as to repel those dilettante readers, whose suffrage is necessary for a widely-extended reputation; none but genuine students would care to grapple with the serried array of definitions, axioms, and propositions, of which the Ethics is composed, while the display of geometric accuracy flatters the careless into supposing, that the whole structure is interdependent, and that, when a single breach has been effected, the entire fabric has been demolished. The matter, no less than the manner, of Spinoza’s writings was such as to preclude popularity. He genuinely shocked his contemporaries. Advances in thought are tolerated in proportion as they respond to and, as it were, kindle into flame ideas which are already smouldering obscurely in many minds. A teacher may deepen, modify, transfigure what he finds, but he must not attempt radical reconstruction. In the seventeenth century all men’s deepest convictions were inseparably bound up with anthropomorphic notions of the Deity; Spinoza, in attacking these latter and endeavouring to substitute the conception of eternal and necessary law, seemed to be striking at the very roots of moral order: hence with curious irony his works, which few read and still fewer understood, became associated with notions of monstrous PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011) 6 http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1710 Online Library of Liberty: The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1 (Tractatus-Theologico- Politicus, Tractatus Politicus) impiety, and their author, who loved virtue with single-hearted and saintly devotion, was branded as a railer against God and a subverter of morality, whom it was a shame even to speak of.