Pierre Bayle, one of those stellar French philosophers of the late 17th century, had a great reputation in his own day and for some time thereafter, though he has somewhat faded from attention of late. Nonetheless, when he WAS a rock star, another philosophical rock star, Voltaire, called Bayle "the greatest dialectician who has ever written." I mention that only to introduce something fascinating that Bayle wrote about Spinoza. Bayle found in Spinoza's writing "echoes of various religious teachings: Persian 'sufism' and 'cabalism'; some ancient Indian doctrines; [and] the contemplative practices of a Chinese sect named Foe Kiao, founded around the same time as Christianity." I interrupt at this point to let you know that Bayle almost certainly got the notions of this Chinese sect from a source that used a corruption of the Chinese term for Buddhism. Bayle clearly underestimates the age of Buddhism here and believes apparently that it origin...