Summary

Ester writes to Spinoza: “my crude thoughts are not worthy of your time … if this indeed be the reason for your refusal to engage in dialogue … I must apologize and retreat” (349). She acknowledges his cautious communication of ideas: “it is natural you might fear that I claim loyalty to some cause hostile of free thought” (349). “Mayhap the ban issued upon you in Amsterdam offered a manner of freedom … you shed the unbearable sorrows of the martyrs of your people” (349). Ester describes his thoughts as perhaps having “thorns that prick one’s own people,” that which “would seem unutterable” (350).

Ester wonders “what manner of divine existence” Spinoza claims (350). In relation to those suffering from pain that is undeserving, such as “the babe born deformed”: “it must either be that God cares not for suffering or that God lacks the power to provide more tenderly … unless...