Ethics (book)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
Ethics was a philosophical work by Benedict de Spinoza, written in Latin and published in the Netherlands in 1677.
Gary Mitchell considered this reading to be "longhair stuff" when James Kirk tried to interest him in it at Starfleet Academy. Infused with psionic energy at the galactic barrier in 2265, however, a mutated Mitchell viewed the work on a sickbay reader screen and found it "simple – childish almost."
Discussing Spinoza with Kirk, Mitchell had just been reading Part IV, the proof of Proposition XXXVII, which states: "The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for other men, and so much the more, in proportion as he has a greater knowledge of God". (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")
