Descartes: A Biography

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The Principles of Philosophy() 

the senses rather than delay further the earlier parts or omit from them what I would
have deferred to the later parts. (viii-.)

Descartes had written to Huygens in Januarythat he was drafting
the sections of thePrinciplesthat discuss magnetism. Given the major
distractions emanating from Utrecht during,itisnot surprising that
it was almost a full year before he could report to Pollot, in January,
that he was finishing the paragraphs on magnetism.
The imminent publication of the text caused Mersenne to defer a trip
to Italy that he had planned to make in early, and to announce the
anticipated appearance of thePrinciplesin the dedication of a book he
published that year.He wrote on that occasion:

When I hear that you are about to edit very soon the Physics that is awaited so impa-
tiently by the learned, and which is more perfectly compatible than peripatetic physics
with the mysteries of our faith and theological dogmas, I address to you, in the name
of all Catholics, the greatest gratitude possible, to you who happily take under your
protection not only philosophical truths but also those of theology.

From Mersenne’s perspective, Descartes was about to provide a more
reliable basis for Catholic apologetics than scholastic philosophy. Huygens
was equally enthusiastic about the imminent appearance of what he hoped
would be a comprehensive and authoritative summary of Descartes’ phi-
losophy, one that might redeem the damage caused by suppressingThe
Worldeleven years earlier. He sent Descartes a poem entitled ‘In praise
of The Principles of Philosophy of Ren ́e Descartes’, which subsequently
appeared in a collection of his poems calledDesultory Moments.
Descartes had hoped to have copies of thePrinciplesready before he
embarked on his visit to France. In preparation for the visit, he wrote
to various friends and potential supporters to arrange meetings. Unfortu-
nately, he knew in advance that he would be unable to meet one of his most
sympathetic readers. In August, Antoine Arnauld had published his
famous bookOn Frequent Communion,inwhich he publicly supported
Jansenism in the increasingly bitter dispute between Port Royal and the
Jesuits.Arnauld’s theological critics arranged for him to go to Rome, to
give an account of his allegedly heterodox views. They also hoped to con-
firm his exile by making a return to France impossible. However, Gallican
supporters of the autonomy of the French church provided a refuge for
him in France, presumably as a solitaire in Port Royal des Champs or
some similarly safe Jansenist haven. Descartes expressed his sympathy
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