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IN PART I of the Ethics, Spinoza argued that a modification is infinite just in case it either "follows from the absolute nature of any attribute of God" or "follows from some attribute of God, as it is modified by such a modification" that is infinite.^sup 1^The main purpose of this argument is to bolster the claim later in this text that a finite modification can follow from a divine attribute only insofar as that attribute is modified by another finite modification.^sup 2^ Thus it is understandable that in the section that contains the argument Spinoza did not actually affirm the existence of the two kinds of infinite modifications he mentioned, which following standard practice I call "immediate infinite modes" and "mediate infinite modes," respectively.^sup 3^ Yet in this section he did offer as an example of an immediate infinite mode in the attribute of thought the "Idea of God" (idea Dei), a mode that plays a crucial role elsewhere in the Ethics.^sup 4^ Moreover, he noted in this text, what he had indicated in his earlier writings, that such a mode corresponds to "motion and rest," a basic feature of the material world.^sup 5^
By contrast, his earliest works do not even mention the mediate infinite modes, and the Ethics itself cites no example of a mode of this sort. In fact, the only place in which Spinoza provided an example is in a somewhat obscure passage from a 1675 letter to G. H. Schuller. Pressed by Schuller for such examples, he offered in response merely "the face of the whole Universe" (facies totius Universi).^sup 6^ He did refer Schuller to a miniature treatise on body in the Ethics, thus implying that this infinite mode pertains in some manner to the attribute of extension. But Spinoza did not indicate the significance of this mode with respect to his account of this attribute, and said nothing about the manner in which such a mode is reflected in the attribute of thought.
It is tempting at this point to dismiss the remarks to Schuller as,a textual oddity peripheral to Spinoza's system, akin to his terse endorsement in another letter of divine attributes other than the two we know, namely, extension and thought.^sup 7^ But though I...