Possibly, gentlemen, you may fancy that, on the model of Caesar’s address to his poor ferryman,—­“Caesarem vehis et fortunas ejus”—­M.  Des Cartes needed only to have said,—­“Dogs, you cannot cut my throat, for you carry Des Cartes and his philosophy,” and might safely have defied them to do their worst.  A German emperor had the same notion, when, being cautioned to keep out of the way of a cannonading, he replied, “Tut! man.  Did you ever hear of a cannon-ball that killed an emperor?” As to an emperor I cannot say, but a less thing has sufficed to smash a philosoper; and the next great philosopher of Europe undoubtedly was murdered.  This was Spinosa.

I know very well the common opinion about him is, that he died in his bed.  Perhaps he did, but he was murdered for all that; and this I shall prove by a book published at Brussels, in the year 1731, entitled, La Via de Spinosa; Par M. Jean Colerus, with many additions, from a MS. life, by one of his friends.  Spinosa died on the 21st February, 1677, being then little more than forty-four years old.  This of itself looks suspicious; and M. Jean admits, that a certain expression in the MS. life of him would warrant the conclusion, “que sa mort n’a pas ete tout-a-fait naturelle.”  Living in a damp country, and a sailor’s country, like Holland, he may be thought to have indulged a good deal in grog, especially in punch,[1] which was then newly discovered.  Undoubtedly he might have done so; but the fact is that he did not.  M. Jean calls him “extremement sobre en son boire et en son manger.”  And though some wild stories were afloat about his using the juice of mandragora (p. 140,) and opium, (p. 144,) yet neither of these articles appeared in his druggist’s bill.  Living, therefore, with such sobriety, how was it possible that he should die a natural death at forty-four?  Hear his biographer’s account:—­“Sunday morning the 21st of February, before it was church time, Spinosa came down stairs and conversed with the master and mistress of the house.”  At this time, therefore, perhaps ten o’clock on Sunday morning, you see that Spinosa was alive, and pretty well.  But it seems “he had summoned from Amsterdam a certain physician, whom,” says the biographer, “I shall not otherwise point out to notice than by these two letters, L.M.  This L.M. had directed the people of the house to purchase an ancient cock, and to have him boiled forthwith, in order that Spinosa might take some broth about noon, which in fact he did, and ate some of the old cock with a good appetite, after the landlord and his wife had returned from church.

[Footnote 1:  “June 1, 1675.—­Drinke part of 3 boules of punch, (a liquor very strainge to me,)” says the Rev. Mr. Henry Teonge, in his Diary lately published.  In a note on this passage, a reference is made to Fryer’s Travels to the East Indies, 1672, who speaks of “that enervating liquor called Paunch, (which is Indostan for five,) from five ingredients.”  Made thus, it seems the medical men called it Diapente; if with four only, Diatessaron.  No doubt, it was its Evangelical name that recommended it to the Rev. Mr. Teonge.]