The Philosophy of Spinoza as Contained in the First, Second, and Fifth Parts of the “Ethics,” and in Extracts from the Third and Fourth. Translated from the Latin, and edited with notes by George Stuart Fullerton

After finding himself excommunicated from the Jewish community and banished from Amsterdam for his allegedly heretical views of the Bible, Spinoza latinized his first name from "Baruch" to the name we know him today. Although he was acclaimed as a first rate 17^th Rationalist philosopher, he made his money as a lens grinder, a talent that even Leibniz recognized and would indefinitely seek - the two would become life-long friends. Since Spinoza was often condemned as a "renegade Jew" based on the views expressed in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Spinoza did not dare publish, at least while he was alive, his other major works, including his notable Ethica, for fear of his life. Instead, he requested that his friends surreptitiously publish them after his death.