Spinoza is scarcely likely to become a great favorite with the "Woman's Rights Convention." In his ninth chapter of the same Treatise, he says, "If by nature women were equal to men, and excelled as much as they in strength of mind and in talent, truly amongst nations, so many and so different, some would be found where both sexes ruled equally, and others where the men were ruled by the women, and so educated as to be inferior to them in talent; but as this has never happened, we are justified in assuming that women, by nature, have not an equal right with men, but that they are necessarily obedient to men, and thus it can never happen that both sexes can equally rule, and still less that men be ruled by women." Lewes, in his seventh chapter on Modern Philosophy, thus sums up Spinoza's teachings and their result. He says:-- "The doctrine of Spinoza was of great importance, if for nothing more than having brought about the first crisis in modern philosophy. His doctrine was so clearly stated, and so rigorously deduced from admitted premises, that he brought philosophy into this dilemma:-- "'Either my premises are correct; and we must admit that every clear and distinct idea is absolutely true; true not only subjectively, but objectively. "'If so, my objection is true; "'Or my premises are false; the voice of consciousness is not the voice of truth; "'And if so, then is my system false, but all philosophy is impossible; since the only ground of certitude--our consciousness--is pronounced unstable, our only means of knowing the truth is pronounced fallacious.'" "Spinozism or scepticism, choose between them, for you have no other choice. "Mankind refused, however, to make a choice. If the principles which Descartes had established could have no other result than Spinozism, it was worth while inquiring whether those principles might not themselves be modified. "The ground of discussion was shifted, psychology took the place of ontology. It was Descartes's theory of knowledge which led to Spinozism; that theory must therefore he examined; that theory becomes the great subject of discussion. Before deciding upon the merits of any system which embraced the great questions of creation, the Deity, immortality, etc., men saw that it was necessary to decide upon the competency of the human mind to solve such problems. All knowledge must be obtained either through experience or independent of experience. Knowledge dependent on experience must necessarily be merely knowledge of _phenomena_. All are agreed that experience can only be experience of ourselves as modified by objects. All are agreed that to know things _per se--noumena_--we must know them through some other channel then experience. Have we or have we not that other channel? This is the problem." "Thus, before we can dogmatize upon on to logical subjects, we must settle this question--Can we transcend the sphere of our consciousness, and know things _per se_?" "I."