Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

However, he was somewhat consoled by the fact that the French version

of thePrincipleswas almost ready for distribution. The dedicatory letter

to Elizabeth had been printed last, and he was about to send her a copy in

case she wished to suggest amendments. He left for Rotterdam onJune,

travelled overland to Middelburg, and left by boat from Vlissingen on

June. The journey to Paris was expected to take about two weeks.

The original plan had been to lodge with Picot for a short time and then

to travel to Brittany toward the beginning of July, when he would take care

of various financial matters that required his personal attention. However,

he now had to hand the almost complete FrenchPrinciples, and it urgently

required the final touch of another short Preface, that is, the ‘Letter of the

Author to the Translator of this Book, which can serve here as a Preface’

(ix-.–). While he took time to complete this, he visited with very

few people. They included Mersenne, as usual; Mydorge (who was to die

before Descartes’ return to Paris in September); and Claude Clerselier,

who had recovered from the serious illness of the previous winter and had

seen the French version of theMeditationsthrough the press in Paris about

four months earlier.

While still in Paris in July, Descartes received a letter that had been

forwarded from Elizabeth, in which she told him about further health

problems. He confirmed his plans to travel to Poitou and Brittany ‘within

four or five days’ (v.). However, he seems to have had another change

of mind about either remaining in France or returning to Holland. The

apparent vacillation might be nothing more than a symptom of the cus-

tomary obsequious language with which he expressed his gratitude to

Elizabeth for writing to him and honouring him with her inquiries.

‘A ssoon as I put my affairs [in Brittany] in some order, I would like

nothing more than to return to the places where I was so happy to have the

honour of speaking sometimes with your Highness. For, although there

are many people here [in Paris] whom I honour and esteem, I have nev-

ertheless not seen any yet who could keep me here’ (v.). This desire to

return to the United Provinces was consistent with the conditional nature

of his earlier plans. If the Leiden theologians could be forced to retract

their accusations, Descartes would be willing to remain in Holland. And

since it would take some time to get a decision on that issue – given that

the controversy at Utrecht was still not resolved to his satisfaction four

years after it had erupted – he could count on a sufficiently long delay

and, meantime, he could return provisionally to Egmond.