"After experience had taught me..."

Here is the first sentence of "On the Improvement...." which happens to be, for me, the most intriguing, fascinating, and succinct statement of purpose ever written, and after decades of reflection upon its meaning, I have not always been able to connect with the meaning of "affecting the mind singly, to the exclusion of all else...." etc.

==========

[1]  (1) After experience had taught me that all the usual

surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none

of the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything either

good or bad, except in so far as the mind is affected by them,

I finally resolved to inquire whether there might be some real

good having power to communicate itself, which would affect the

mind singly, to the exclusion of all else: whether, in fact, there

might be anything of which the discovery and attainment would

enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness.

===========

So, Spinoza, unlike most other Western philosophers, is interested not so much with an elegant and plausible speculative deconstruction of "what is" as his heart yearns for....a love supreme.  We'll be looking into the ideas in this sentence in detail.