Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-11-08

tons of the human intellect the reader of Plato cam
not fail to be struck by the analogy which exists
between The philosopher of Greece and of Holland.
Experience is absolutely prescribed from the do
main OF metaphysics, not arbitrarily, but princ-
ple for the science of mind, they both conceiv-
ed can only be founded on the dscursive reason,
or, what is still better and higher, on the ntellec
tual intuition.
Now, according to Spinoza, the human inielIec,
is capable Of forming the conception Of the infinite
of the perfect, or, he chooses to call it, of SUBJ
stance; and this substance is being, not such or
such being, not being in general, abstract being
but absolute Beng-BeiDg without which nothing
can be or be conceived. This Being, or Subs ance,
has necessarily attributes, which contain and ex-
press its essence, otherwise substance would be
mere abstract being Substance or infinite Being
has not only attributes but each of these attributes
expresses after its manner the essence of substance
and since this essence is infinite, it must possess
an n6niy of infinite attributes but this infinity of
the attribute is not absolute, bu. only relative TO
substance, which is alone infniiy in itself-beng
full and absolute. Substance, then, has necessarily
attributes, n6niy of attributes, and each of these
attributes is infinite in its kind Now, an infinite
attribute must OF necessity have modes of manifes-
tation What, for instance, would be thought, which
is an attribute of substance without the ideas which
determine and develop the essence Of thought
What would be the attribute Of extension, without
the figures or modes which define IT, and without
the motions which diversity it? AS attributes are
required TO express the essence of substance, SO
modes are required to express the essence Of atr-
butes. These modes are necessarily finite, for they
are determnable multiples, and only express in
finite manner the relative inHny of the attribute
just the attribute, though infinite, can only ex-
press in relative manner the absolute infinity Of
substance; but while finite when taken separately,
they are infinite when taken collectively, and then
compose the attribute whose essence they express.
Thus, says Saisset, from the bosom of substance
evolved necessarily innity of attributes and
from the bosom Of each of these attributes evolv
ed necessarily an infnity of modes. The attri-
butes are not separated from substance, nor the
modes from the attributes. The relation Of atri-
butte TO substance is the same as that of mode to at
tribute; all is interlnked without being confound-
ed, all is distinguished without being separated:
common law, constant proportion, bond Of alb
solute necessity confne eernally distinct and eter-
nally united the substance, the attribute, and the
mode; and this is Being, Reality, God The
reader cannot fail to remark in all this the ut
ter exclusion Of all appeal to experience or sensa-
ton in Spnozas system. Like the dialectics of
Plato, il studiousy ignores in psychology, and on
tology likewise, the evidence of the senses; it is
purely system of ideology.
The " Ethics of Spinoza are divided into five
parts, which treat respectively of God, the mind
the passions, the slavery of man, or the control of
the passions, and the power of the understanding,
or the liberty of man. We shall endeavor to ex-
piscate the fundamental propositions of these Sc
veral categories. Since every mode is the mani
festaton of an infinite attribute as cube Of deter
inmate proportions for instance is manifestation
of the Infinite attribute of extension in which it
inheres, and relatively to which it is measured so
zIc~ &c
mite substance SO that if this substance did not
exist therscould be nothing capable Of existence.
Now this substance, thus constituted by infnity
Of attributes of which each one expresses an inf
mite and eternal essence, must therefore exist me-
cessariy and it is this Substance or Being that is
the God of Spinoza Of the infinity Of attributes
which compose the essence of Being, only two are
apprecable by the human intellect, thought and
extension. Now, since God must necessarily exist,
his attributes must also exist and attributes cannot
exist without their determinations or forms, and
these forms of the infinite thought are individual
minds, and the forms of the infinite extension are
separate bodies, infinite not in their capacity or
extent, but in their number. Consequently, God
or Being produces necessarily thought, extension,
and an infnity of other attributes, which the lm-
ted mode of The human mind cannot reach, but
which it must conceive of in its idea of perfect
Being, and which, therefore, this complete Being,
or Substance, or God must possess. Extension
and thought in turn, produce necessarily an infinite
variety of bodies and minds. The infnity of God
cannot according to Spinoza, be limited by any
relation to time, and hence it follows that minds
and bodies must have also existed in successive
manner from all eternity and as this development
has no beginning, SO also it will have no end.
creatiUe God is thus impossible, according to this
idealist. In this geometrical world, says Saisset,
in his summing up of Spinoza's system, there is no
place for the contingent, none for human caprice
or free agency; from beginning to end there reigns
an infexible and irrevocable necessity. If there
is no free agency, there is of course no evil all is
good, for all is it should be, and as it must be-
The fatasm of Spinoza is, to adopt his own style
an absolute fatalism, where every thing is infinitely
fatal and necessary and this principle being enun-
ciated, every reader can educe his inevitable con-
clusons respecting the passions, their domination,
and the impotence of the human understanding to
resist the ordination of determinate destiny.
God alone is necessary--to translate once more
from M. SAIssET-is necessary with a necessity
eternal, absolute, and Interchangeable. Finite things,
while resulting necessarily from the Divine nature,
can exist in time only, in limited and successive
manner they appear at the determined day in eterni
ty, but only to disappear and give place 10 other
beings. There is nothing contingent, nothing dis
ordered in this perpetual revolution, which nces-
sanity creates destroys, and renews all things every
being, whether psychological or ontologica, is de-
termined to existence and TO action by an anterior
being and so on ad iyfnif,am. Motion produces
motion, ideas produce ideas, according to law
which inheres in the very nature Of extension and