Descartes: A Biography

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Retreat and Defence (–) 

These rather ambitious hopes about living long were challenged by the

death of local friends and acquaintances. Reneri (‘my dear friend’) had

died at the age of forty-six the previous year, and Martinus Hortensius

(not a friend of Descartes) had died the same year at the relatively early age

of thirty-four. In thinking about their deaths, Descartes was prompted to

acknowledge that ‘one can find death without going to war’ (ii.). The

only indication of ill health that Descartes mentions, during these years,

is that he is ‘almost deaf ’ (ii.).

Despite these sober reflections on mortality, Descartes seems to have

been relatively content during this period of his life. He had a domes-

tic male servant whom he usually referred to simply as ‘my Limousin’.

This native of Limousin was presumably the same one named as Clement ́

Chamboir in Descartes’ letter to his cousin, Marguerite Ferrand, of

February.Chamboir had returned to Paris on one of his frequent

errands in spring, and he seemed slower than usual in returning to

Holland. Descartes asked Mersenne to intercede and to try to persuade

the reluctant valet to resume his duties. However, he was not willing to

wait indefinitely for a decision, and so he told Mersenne: ‘I know someone

else here whom I have promised to hire if the Limousin does not come by

the end of April or if I do not hear that he is on the way’ (ii.). This extra

pressure had the desired effect, because the servant ‘eventually arrived

eight or ten days’ (ii.) before the end of June. Descartes also had some

very reliable friends who visited frequently. Gillot visited for three days

(–June), and Reneri was a frequent visitor before August.

After that, he was too sick to travel the distance from Utrecht to the vicinity

of Alkmaar.

During this period Descartes also seems to have lost interest in main-

taining contact with his own family in Brittany. His brother, Pierre, had

apparently sent him two letters, using Mersenne as an intermediary, and

Descartes acknowledges that only one of them arrived, courtesy of his

local publisher.Descartes uses the same indirect route to reply, ask-

ing Mersenne to make sure to forward the letter before July, when his

brother usually left Brittany at the close of parliamentary business.He

also acknowledged that he had lived so long outside France that he was

ignorant about many features of French life, including ordinary usage in

writing the French language.

The picture that emerges from his correspondence is that of a philoso-

pher very much out of touch with his native country and with his family,