Spinoza

Abstract

THE author of this book allows himself the liberties of the novelist. He is omniscient and omnipresent. He knows Spinoza's private thoughts and how he looked on occasions when he was quite alone. No questions about authenticity of evidence trouble him. All this would have mattered little had he possessed the imaginative insight and power of expression which can justify such flouting of the rules. As it is, the book is neither reliable biography nor a living picture of a personality. It is not without value. Spinoza's stature is so great that it would need a very bad writer to shut him out of sight altogether. Mr. Kayser gives a great deal of useful information about the circumstances of Spinoza's life and about his contemporaries. The excursions into legend do not seriously affect the general tenor of the narrative, though they do throw doubt on the author's critical capacity.

Spinoza

Portrait of a Spiritual Hero. By Rudolf Kayser. Translated by Amy Allen and Maxim Newmark. Pp. xix + 326. (New York : Philosophical Library, Inc., 1946.) 3.75 dollars.