Question: I would like to know how to understand *unde* in the last sentence:

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> SCHOLIUM II: Non dubito quin omnibus qui de rebus confuse judicant nec res per primas suas causas noscere consueverunt, difficile sit demonstrationem propositionis concipere; nimirum quia non distinguunt inter modificationes substantiarum et ipsas substantias neque sciunt quomodo res producuntur. **Unde fit ut principium quod res naturales habere vident, substantiis affingant.**
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It is taken from Spinoza's *Ethics* and the translation by R.H.M. Elwes is the following: 

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> ...hence they may attribute to substances the beginning which they observe in natural objects.
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So:

* *ut principium substantiis affingant* = "they may attribute the beginning"
* *quod res naturales habere vident* = "which they observe in natural objects"

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> Unde, adv.  
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>  1. from which place, whence  
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>  2. it replaces sometimes connection of a, de, ex with relative pronoun (taken from my dictionary) 
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Does it mean in that sentence "hence" or does it has some other meaning?

*fit (facio)* - I am not sure where it should belong in that sentence, either, perhaps it belongs to "principium" ? So "fit principium" would be "made beginning"?

Answer: 
A very literal translation:

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> Whence it comes that the beginning which they see natural things possess, they attach to substances.
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A more natural translation:

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> This is why they ascribe to substances the same beginning that they see natural things possess.
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Notes:

1. *Unde* is strictly speaking a relative meaning "whence, from which place". But Latin often begins sentences with relative pronouns that are really just a way of connecting back to the previous sentence. Such relatives are usually better translated as if they were demonstratives: in this case, "hence / from here".
2. *fit ut* is a common expression meaning "it happens that, it comes to be the case that". The clause following the *ut* in such cases is called a "substantive *ut*-clause", since it fulfills the role of a noun in the sentence -- here, it's as if the entire clause beginning *ut* is the subject of *fit* (since it describes what "becomes" or comes to be the case). Substantive *ut*-clauses take a subjunctive verb, which explains the form of *affingant*.
**UNDE**

They actually mean the same thing. You can say whence or hence. The only problem you run into is the awkwardness of the Latin period in translation. Instead of keeping it one long sentence and having *unde* function as a relative, "from which point (=whence) they..." or "Hence, they...".

Think in English the difference between the two in simple relative clauses.

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> I saw the boy, who was walking to the store.
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> I saw the boy. He was walking to the store.
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**FIT**

Not entirely sure on this one, but perhaps he's post-positioning the *ut*, giving the phrase *ut fit*, meaning "as usual." If that were the case, it would be polemical (which fits the rest of the context), "*As usual*, they attribute..."

Latin has no problem with stacking things up front that would sound clumsy in English, so perhaps that's why the translator chose to leave it out?