Or, still more so, the hocus pocus in mathematical form, by means of which Spinoza has, as it were, clad his philosophy in mail and mask in fact, the love of wisdom, to translate the term fairly and squarely in order thereby to strike terror at once into the heart of the assailant who should dare to cast a glance on that invincible maiden, that Pallas Athene: how much of personal timidity and vulnerability does this masquerade of a sickly recluse betray!.