e demonstrations and almost all cross-references; by
grouping related sections of the _Ethics_ (with selections from the
_Letters_ and the _Improvement of the Understanding_) under sectional
headings, the text has been made more continuous. It is the only time,
probably, dismembering a treatise actually made it more unified.

In an Appendix, the sources of the selections from the _Ethics_ are
summarily indicated. It would be a meaningless burden on the text to
make full acknowledgments in footnotes. For the same reason, there has
been almost no attempt made to show, by means of the conventional
devices, the re-arrangements and abridgements that have been made. Every
care has been taken not to distort in any way the meaning of the text.
And that is all that is important in a volume of this kind.

Wherever possible Spinoza's own chapter headings have been retained; and
some of the sectional headings have either been taken from, or have been
based upon expressions in the text. It would have been more in keeping
with contemporary form to use the title _On Historical Method_ or _The
New History_ instead of _Of the Interpretation of Scripture_; a chapter
on _Race Superiority_ would sound more important than one on _The
Vocation of the Hebrews_; but such modernizing changes were not made
because the aim has been to give the reader a text as faithful to the
original as the character of this volume would allow.

The selections have been taken from Elwes' translation of the _Tractatus
Theologico-Politicus_, _A Political Treatise_ and the _Improvement of
the Understanding_; and from White's translation of the _Ethics_. These
translations are no longer in copyright and hence it was not necessary
to secure permission from the publishers to use them. Nonetheless,
grateful acknowledgment is their just due.

White, in his translation, uses, not altogether without reason, the
stilted term "affect" instead of the natural English term "emotion."
"Affect" is closer to the Latin and it more clearly indicates the
metaphysical status of the emotions as "modes" or "affectiones" of
Substance. Still, practically no one has followed White in his usage.
The reasons are not difficult to discover. Besides being a stilted term,
having no legitimate English status, "affect" very often makes the text
extremely obscure, even unintelligible to one who has no antecedent
knowledge of it, because besides having also its ordinary English
meaning, "affect"