De Piscibus Libri V et De Cetis Liber Unus

The second volume of Spinoza’s works, which we now communicate to the learned, contains his posthumous remains. These were first published under the title B. d. S. Opera Posthuma Posthumous Works of Benedict de Spinoza, the list of which is exhibited after the preface, in the year 1677 (614 pages in quarto). They were edited in such a way that, after the index of subjects, there follows a Compendium of Hebrew Grammar of 112 pages. Our first volume anticipated the collection of letters, which in that first edition filled pages 395 through 614, so that the volumes might become sufficiently equal in size. All other remaining items are now published anew, carefully revised.

Among these is the Ethics, a more extensive and pure interpreter of that philosophy which, against the author’s will, is called Spinozistic, and which is to be pondered especially through the repeated meditations of sagacious men. The path by which the author progressed to discover this Ethics is discerned from the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, even though it was not brought to a conclusion. When this is considered, if anyone, even those furthest from the author’s principles...