It is clear that the writer who himself is a rewarding philosopher has an adequat and thorough understanding of Spinoza's thought but it does not mean that reading the book is easy and in fact, I guess, it is better to read the Spinoza's Ethics first to understand better Scruton's exposition of the great thinker of Rationalism era. Also, it doesn't necessarily mean that the book would be useless for introductory readers for, specially, the first chapter was very useful in a sense that it provided the reader with a historical background and the chapter about Spinoza's political thoughts is highly intelligible.