Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 5.djvu/328

 SIXTEENTH BOOK.

What people commonly say of misfortunes, — that they never come alone, — may with almost as much truth be said also of good fortune, and, indeed, of other circumstances which often cluster around us in a har- monious way, whether it be by a kind of fatahty, or whether it be that man has the power of attracting to himself all mutually related things.

At any rate, my present experience showed me everything conspiring to produce an outward and an inward peace. The former came to me while I re- solved patiently to await the result of what others were meditating and designing for me : the latter, how- ever, I had to attain for myself by renewing former studies.

I had not thought of Spinoza for a long time, and now I was driven to him by an attack upon him. In our hbrary I found a httle book, the author of which railed violently against that original thinker, and, to go the more effectually to work, had inserted for a frontispiece a picture of Spinoza himself, vsdth the inscription, " Signum reprohationis in vultu gerens" bearing on his face the stamp of reprobation. This there was no gainsaying, indeed, so long as one looked at the picture ; for the engraving was wretchedly bad, a perfect caricature : so that I could not help thinking of those adversaries who, when they conceive a dislike to any one, first of all misrepresent him, and then assail the monster of their own creation.

This little book, however, made no impression upon 306