c CUNYB/Clarke     December, :



Retreat and Defence

(–)

There is still hardly anyone who has understood fully what I wrote.

(i.)

D

spent the years immediately following publication of the

Essaysin seclusion in the north of Holland. As usual, he con-

cealed the various addresses he used from anyone who might disturb him.

He moved north from Leiden some time during spring, perhaps as

early as April. By May, he reported that he was living in an unidentified

location in the Alkmaar region, possibly at Egmond, ‘but without being

there because I do not think that I shall remain there’ (i.).None of the

letters during the following eighteen months, even those sent frequently

to his patron, Huygens, gives any indication of his precise address. Thus

when Huygens was writing to him from the siege of Breda (which lasted

fromJuly toOctober), he borrowed one of Descartes’ phrases from the

Discourseto tease his elusive correspondent about the ‘imaginary spaces’

he inhabited.OnJanuary,however, Descartes acknowledged that

he was in Santpoort, a small village north of Haarlem, though it remains

unclear whether he had moved there recently or had been living there for

some time previously.

The reasons for the extra secrecy during these years may have been

that Helena Jans and her daughter, Francine, were still living with him,

although there is no independent evidence to support that suggestion.

Descartes’ own explanation of his seclusion during this period was the

same one he had offered on previous occasions. For example, he wrote to

Mersenne (May):

Finally, between ourselves, there was nothing more incompatible with my plans than

the Paris air, because of the infinite number of distractions that are unavoidable there.

