De Animalibus Insectis Libri Septem

not necessarily driven to Pantheism. This rather seems to happen only if those who use the intellect theoretically take the law of the intellect, or formal thinking, as the sole law also constituting the existence indicated by thought. In this matter, therefore, it seems that not Philosophy is to be blamed, but Philosophers; let me be allowed to profess this freely, however much I am conscious of my own insignificance in philosophizing. Nor do I foresee that those who are less friends to themselves than they are to philosophy itself could take this indignantly.

Regarding the literary history of the writings of Spinoza, which are presented in this volume, far fewer things occur to be noted than for the previous part.

They were published only once under the title already mentioned. In the same form exists a portrait of the Philosopher engraved in copper, which is therefore not infrequently found prefixed to copies of this edition. Often, however, it is absent, nor is it indicated in the preface that it belongs to it. Enclosed in a double circle on a square base, it has the name: BENEDICTUS DE SPINOZA with three distichs, worthy neither of a Poet nor a Philosopher:

To whom Nature, God, and the order of things were known,
 In this state Spinoza was to be seen.
They expressed the face of the man, but the arts of Zeuxis
 Could not paint the mind.
That flourishes in his writings: there he treats of the sublime.
 Whoever wishes to know him, read his works.