fictitious Hamburg publisher. When Spinoza heard, some
time later, that a Dutch translation of this work was being prepared, he
earnestly beseeched his friends to forestall its publication (which they
did) because only its Latin dress saved it from being officially
proscribed. It was then an open secret who the author was. Spinoza's
personal rule to incur as little official displeasure as possible made
him abandon his final literary project entertained in 1675. When he
began negotiations for the publication of the _Ethics_ a rumor spread
that he had in press a book proving that God does not exist. Complaint
was lodged with the prince and magistrates. "The stupid Cartesians,"
Spinoza wrote Oldenburg "being suspected of favoring me, endeavored to
remove the aspersion by abusing every where my opinions and writings, a
course which they still pursue." In the circumstances, Spinoza thought
it wisest to delay publication till matters would change. But,
apparently, they did not change, or change sufficiently. The _Ethics_
was first published about a year after Spinoza's death.

In spite of the consensus of adverse, and somewhat vicious opinion, the
author of the _Tractatus_ did find favor in the eyes of some. The
Elector Palatine, Karl Ludwig, through his secretary Fabritius, offered
Spinoza the chair of philosophy at Heidelberg (1673). But Spinoza
graciously declined it. Although a more welcome or more honorable
opportunity to teach could not be conceived, it had never been his
ambition to leave his secluded station in life for one involving public
obligations. Even in his secluded corner, he found he had aroused more
public attention and sentiment than was altogether consonant with the
peace and retirement he sought. Besides, he did not know how well he
could fulfill the desires of the Elector by teaching nothing that would
tend to discomfit established religion.

Spinoza had, in his young days, learned what extreme dangers one must
expect to encounter in a righteous community become inimical. In his
last years, he experienced a stern and tragic reminder. Two of Spinoza's
best friends, Cornelius and Jan de Witt, who had by a change in
political fortune become the enemies of the people, were brutally
murdered (1672). Spinoza for once, when this occurred, lost his
habitual philosophic calm. He could restrain neither his tears nor his
anger. He had to be forcibly prevented from leaving his house to post a
bill, at the scene o