esires, but not of the causes of them. I fear me even Oldenburg does
not understand that virtue follows as necessarily from adequate
knowledge as from the definition of a triangle follows that its angles
are equal to two right angles. I am, I suppose, also to let men
continue to think that the planetary system revolves round them, and
that thunders and lightnings wait upon their wrong-doing. Oldenburg
has doubtless been frighted by the extravagances of the restored
Court. But 'tis not my teachings will corrupt the gallants of
Whitehall. Those who live best by Revelation through Tradition must
cling to it, but Revelation through Reason is the living testament of
God's word, nor so liable as the dead letter to be corrupted by human
wickedness. Strange that it is thought no crime to speak unworthily of
the mind, the true divine light, no impiety to believe that God would
commit the treasure of the true record of Himself to any substance
less enduring than the human heart."

A business letter made a diversion. It concerned the estate of the
deceased medical student, Simon De Vries, a devoted disciple, who
knowing himself doomed to die young, would have made the Master his
heir, had not Spinoza, by consenting to a small annual subsidy,
persuaded him to leave his property to his brother. The grateful heir
now proposed to increase Spinoza's allowance to five hundred florins.

"How unreasonable people are!" mused the philosopher again. "I agreed
once for all to accept three hundred, and I will certainly not be
burdened with a _stuiver_ more."

His landlady here entered with the loaf, and Spinoza, having paid and
entered the sum in his household account-book, cut himself a slice,
adding thereto some fragments of Dutch cheese from a package in his
hand-bag.

"Thou didst leave some wine in the bottle," she reminded him.

"Let it grow older," he answered. "My book shows more than two pints
last month, and my journey was costly. To make both ends meet I shall
have to wriggle," he added jestingly, "like the snake that tries to
get its tail in its mouth." He cut open a packet, discovering that a
friend had sent him some conserve of red roses from Amsterdam. "Now
am I armed against fever," he said blithely. Then, with a remembrance,
"Pray take some up to our poor Signore. I had forgotten to inquire!"

"Oh, he is out teaching again, thanks to thee. He hath set up a candle
for thee in his church."

A tender smile twitched the phi