Spinoza is quite aware that (though he has endea-
voured, as he thinks successfully, to expose the impossibility
of there being any real good or real bad,) those words must
nevertheless be retained, for want of better, as symbols of
such things as are beneficial, or the reverse, to man. His
views on this subject are explained and his opinions, as set
forth in the Appendix to the First Part further extended
in the introduction to Part IV., ' On Slavery, or the Strength
of the Affections.'

* I call man's inability (he says) to moderate and control
the emotional element in his nature. Slavery. For man,
under the dominion of the affections, is not master of him-
self ; and I therefore propose, in this fourth part of my
Ethics, to enquire into the reason of this state of things ;
and to show, besides, what there is of Evil and what of
Good in the affections. Before setting out on my task,
however, I am disposed to say a few words on perfection
and imperfection^ and on good and evil^ by way of preface.
