A STUDY OF SPINOZA.
A Study of the Ethics of Spinout. By Harold H. Joachim. (Clarendon Press. 10s.,6d. not )—No real study of Spinoza has ever been written, or will ever be Written, from the inside stand- point of Spinoza's Writings only. What is the essential nature of the Hebrew as distinguished from the Greek mind in relation to the problem which is being worked out in human existence ? What is the nature of the world-shaping antinomy in which the ultimate governing principles of each have become locked in the period of Western history represented in our era ? To write an effective study of Spinoza's " Ethica" would require, not, indeed, full answers to those questions, for that were impossible, but deep insight into the character of the fundamental problem to which they are related. Mr..Joaolaim has not attempted a study of this kind. But he has given us a learned, painstaking, and sympathetic interpretation of Spinoza's meaning for the English student. Spinoza is mostly known to English readers second- hand through studies of this kind. Speaking for himself, the present writer would have been grateful to Mr. Joachim for a first-hand introduction to Spinoza himself (in translation) on parallel pages.
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