We may here make a note in passing of two facts which are
estabHshed by this exposition of Descartes, and which have been
often overlooked. One is that if Spinoza had ever been a disciple fs
of Descartes, he had completely ceased to be so by the time when
he was giving lessons in philosophy to the pupil in question. The
other is that he did not suppose the geometrical form of statement
and argument to be an infallible method of arriving at philosophical
truth ; for in this work he made use of it to set forth opinions
with which he himself did not agree, and proofs with which he



30 SPINOZA : HIS LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY

was not satisfied. We do not know to what extent Spinoza's
manual was accepted or taken into use by Cartesians, but its
accuracy as an exposition of Descartes is beyond question. One
of the many perverse criticisms made on Spinoza by modern writers
is that he did not understand the fundamental proposition cogho
ergo sum?- In fact he gives precisely the same explanation of it
that is given by Descartes himself in the Meditations.
The next notable event in Spinoza's life is the publication of
the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus {16^0) : the full title, as Englished
by an early translator (1689), runs thus : —

" A treatise partly theological and partly political, containing
some few discourses to prove that the liberty of philosophizing
(that is, making use of natural reason) may be allowed without
any prejudice to piety, or to the peace of any commonwealth ; and
that the loss of public peace and religion itself must necessarily
follow, where such a liberty of reasoning is taken away."

The scope of the book is political and practical, not speculative.
