recrudescence of medievalism, and such an interpretation is undoubtedly often necessary for a proper understanding of this great thinker. Or, one might recall his fears for the success of his work, which caused it to issue in anonymous form and gave it a conciliatory tone that frequently jars on the present-day reader. Again, one might forgive him a caution employed for the event that the authorship might be revealed; for his age exhibits many instances of caution employed in the interest of truth. But all of this is insufficient. He was cautious; he was conciliatory; he was medieval. But above all he was eminently wise. And we may properly view what is above quoted as the expression of deep conviction that however powerfully the pursuit of pure truth may grip man, in the end the society he is in must judge the truth not as truth only but as affecting the welfare of the social order. And that is to say that the pursuit of truth must give heed always to the security of its very foundation.
Thus the motive for recantation lies deeper than at first sight appears. It is really the voice of society cautioning against hurtful excess in the search for truth itself. The mathematico-mechanical age of Spinoza represented the first successful step in mastering nature; and the genius that set Spinoza centuries ahead of his time also disclosed to him the bounds to rationalistic enthusiasm imposed by "the common welfare." Whether reason exults in its success as it exploits the universe from the viewpoint of religion, as in scholasticism, or rejoices in a similar freedom from the viewpoint of science, as aided by mathematics, due regard must be maintained for the institutional life of humanity as conditioning all human activities. This bond must operate always and it must be respected as such, whatever the attacks on other bonds may be, such as indolence and indifference and self-interest. Not alone in Religion, but also in Letters and Art and Science and Education—to mention no more—the institutional life is necessarily dominant as conserving corporate integrity. Hence it is inevitable that progress should elicit opposition, intolerance and persecution being essentially social phenomena. Consequently the history of free thinking and heresy,—with the opposing bigotry and conformity—is an account of
