month. Thousands of millions of blades of grass and corn were eagerly
drinking. For sixteen hours the downpour continued, and when it was
dusk I again went out. The watercourses by the side of the roads had a
little water in them, but not a drop had reached those at the edge of
the fields, so thirsty was the earth. The drought, thank God, was at an
end!



SPINOZA



Now that twenty years have passed since I began the study of Spinoza it
is good to find that he still holds his ground. Much in him remains
obscure, but there is enough which is sufficiently clear to give a
direction to thought and to modify action. To the professional
metaphysician Spinoza's work is already surpassed, and is absorbed in
subsequent systems. We are told to read him once because he is
historically interesting, and then we are supposed to have done with
him. But if "Spinozism," as it is called, is but a stage of development
there is something in Spinoza which can be superseded as little as the
Imitation of Christ or the Pilgrim's Progress, and it is this which
continues to draw men to him. Goethe never cared for set philosophical
systems. Very early in life he thought he had found out that they were
useless pieces of construction, but to the end of his days he clung to
Spinoza, and Philina, of all persons in the world, repeats one of the
finest sayings in the Ethic. So far as the metaphysicians are
carpenters, and there is much carpentering in most of them, Goethe was
right, and the larger part of their industry endures wind and weather