INTERPRETING SPINOZA, Critical Essays
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loginSpinoza selected a seal for his correspondence that was both clever andfitting. It was a design with his initials, a stemmed rose, and the word‘‘Caute,’’ or:with caution. We might suppose that he took this as a mottofor himself, to act always with caution; but since his own name connotedthe rose (espinais Spanish for ‘‘thorn’’), it is more likely that he was advisinghis correspondents to handle him with caution. He had fascinating visionsto offer – but beware the thorns! And his readers soon were pricked bythem, as they discovered that Spinoza denied many things thought to benecessary for a civil life: free will, the traditional distinction between goodand evil, heaven and hell, and the existence of a benevolent creator. Spinozabecame known as an impious atheist, and philosophers over the next twocenturies were both attracted and stung by what he wrote
