intellect (which is affected) is perishable, and can really think
nothing without the support of the creative intellect." {57a} The third
quotation is from a great philosophic writer, but one to whom perhaps we
should not turn for such a coincidence. "I believe," said Pantagruel,
"that all intellectual souls are exempt from the scissors of Atropos.
They are all immortal." {57b}

I have not tried to write an essay on Spinoza, for in writing an essay
there is a temptation to a consistency and completeness which are
contributed by the writer and are not to be found in his subject. The
warning must be reiterated that here as elsewhere we are too desirous,
both writers and readers, of clear definition where none is possible.
We do not stop where the object of our contemplation stops for our eyes.
For my own part I must say that there is much in Spinoza which is beyond
me, much which I cannot EXTEND, and much which, if it can be extended,
seems to involve contradiction. But I have also found his works
productive beyond those of almost any man I know of that acquiescentia
mentis which enables us to live.


SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE ON THE DEVIL


Spinoza denies the existence of the Devil, and says, in the Short
Treatise, that if he is the mere opposite of God and has nothing from
God, he is simply the Nothing. But if a philosophical doctrine be true,
it does not follow that as it stands it is applicable to practical
problems. For these a rule may have to be provided, which, although it
may not be inconsistent with the scientific theorem, differs from it in
form. The Devil is not an invention of priests for priestly purposes,