The chief works of Benedict de Spinoza,
translated from the latin by R.H.M. Elwes,
London, George Bell and sons,
1891


Introduction : a short treatise on the rainbow

Skill in polishing lenses gave him sufficient money for his scanty needs, and he acquired a reputation as an optician before he became known as a philosopher. It was in this capacity that he was consulted by Leibnitz.
His only contribution to the science was a short treatise on the rainbow, printed posthumously in 1687.
This was long regarded as lost, but has, in our own time, been recovered and reprinted by Dr. Van Vloten.


TlIEOLOGICO-POLITICAL TREATISE,
Chap. VI. Of Miracles: His bow in the cloud

In Genesis ix. 13, God tells Noah that He will set His bow in the cloud;
this action of God's is but another way of expressing the refraction and reflection which the rays of the sun are subjected to in drops of water.


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