2o6 SPINOZA : HIS LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY

together, it is called appetite; "which is nothing else than the
very being of the man, from whose nature those things of necessity-
follow which make for his preservation ; and thus the man is
determined to the doing of such things. Then betwixt appetite
and desire there is no difference, save that for the most part desire
is ascribed to men in so far as they be conscious of their appetite ;
and therefore it may be thus defined, that is to say : desire is
appetite with consciousness thereof. From all which it appears
that we have not endeavour, will, appetite, or desire for any-
thing, because we deem it good ; but contrariwise deem a
thing good, because we have an endeavour, will, appetite, or
desire for it."

Whether this bold and far-reaching thought of Spinoza's can
be justified in its whole extent I do not venture to say. But I
entertain no doubt that, after all possible deductions, it contains
profound and vital truth. It seems probable that the extreme
complexity and the late development of distinct consciousness, and
consequently of the emotions as they are known in the adult
experience of mankind, were underrated by Spinoza. It may be
that they were very much underrated, though we have already
seen that the composite character of mind was most clearly asserted
by him. He appears to jump from unconscious organic processes
— which, let us again repeat it, are in his view mental as well
as material, or rather both in one — to the facts of vivid con-
sciousness. The love of Hfe in man is more than an organic
feehng ; the finished ideas of memory and expectation, and even
the highly-wrought conceptions of our ethical and social nature,
have their part in it. And in our active consciousness these more
refined elements are predominant. But in the main it is enough
for Spinoza's purpose that the organic feeling is there ; and that
such a feeling is in truth deeply rooted in us is a proposition
which we need not waste time in establishing. We have already
called in Mr. Herbert Spencer to help us to a modern reading of
Spinoza's thought. 