Descartes: A Biography

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Descartes and Princess Elizabeth 

prevent you from studying all the worthwhile arts and sciences. Besides, the supreme

and incomparable acuteness of your intelligence is apparent from the fact that you

have examined in depth the mysteries of all those sciences and learned them accu-

rately in such a short time. I have even greater evidence, which I alone possess, in

support of that claim because I have found that you alone have understood perfectly

all the work that I have published to date. My publications seem to be very obscure

to many other people, including those who are very learned and gifted. In the case

of most people it is true that, if they are well versed in metaphysics, they hate geom-

etry, whereas if they are trained in geometry they do not understand what I wrote

about first philosophy. I recognize that your intelligence is the only one to which

all these disciplines are equally clear, and for that reason I describe it as incompara-

ble. When I also consider that such a varied and perfect knowledge of everything is

found, not in some professor who is already old and has spent many years in con-

templation, but in a young princess who in beauty and age is more like one of the

Graces than an ageing Minerva or one of the Muses, I cannot avoid being lost in the

greatest admiration. (viii-.,–)

This dedication, together with the book for which it was written, gave rise

to a new, more frequent correspondence between Descartes and Elizabeth

and helped to change the focus of their letters from metaphysics to natural

philosophy.

Mental Health

Elizabeth signed off her letters to Descartes, from the beginning of their

correspondence, with a phrase such as ‘your affectionate friend’ or ‘your

very affectionate friend’.Descartes, for his part, reflected the difference

in their social status with concluding sentences about his willingness to

serve her and to obey her commands.Elizabeth compensated for her

superior social status by mentioning frequently that she was ‘ignorant and

indocile’, by acknowledging her ‘stupidity’ and the inconveniences that

resulted for Descartes because he had agreed ‘to instruct a stupid per-

son like me’.This artificially constructed balance, between a princess

in need of instruction and a philosopher in need of a patron, fostered

amutual understanding that eventually allowed Elizabeth to share with

Descartes some of the more personal features of her family life and, espe-

cially, the various indispositions that required ‘expert’ medical advice.

However, even the most pressing personal problems never distracted

Elizabeth so much that she lost sight of the philosophical problems that

both developed her interests and helped to distract her from the tedium of

her life in exile.