Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

subjects. Therefore the good use of the will is the greatest of our goods; it

is the good which is most properly our own and which is most valuable to

us. It follows that our greatest contentment can result only from the will’

(v.). Descartes added that he was sending Chanut some papers that the

queen might wish to consult. They included an early, incomplete version

of the treatise on the passions, which he had to transcribe from a rather

rough draft, and copies of six letters to Princess Elizabeth in which he

had provided a running commentary on Seneca’sThe Good Life.Apart

from the obvious efficiency involved in not having to compose this mate-

rial from scratch, he anticipated any objections that Elizabeth might have

to sharing this material with Queen Christina by explaining that it might

persuade the queen to think more highly of her in future.

The French diplomat Henri Brasset, who was based in The Hague

as permanent representative from Paris, wrote to Descartes in Decem-

ber with apologies for disturbing his ‘solitude’.Among other items of

diplomatic news, he told him about Louis XIV’s illness and about recent

developments in England that were moving quickly toward their inevitable

conclusion and the execution of Charles I. The king of France was only

nine years old at this stage, and he had been suffering from smallpox

sinceNovember. When he experienced fainting fits later in the same

month, his doctors began to fear for his survival, and they bled him four

times without any noticeable improvement in his condition. By the end of

November, however, he had begun to show signs of recovery, and diplo-

matic delegations throughout Europe were authorized to announce the

imminent recovery of the king.

Descartes passed through The Hague onJanuary, without

meeting anyone there. He was on his way to Rotterdam, simply to accom-

pany Picot on the overland part of his return journey to France.Since

he had said he wanted to avoid such uncomfortable journeys, especially

in midwinter, one might wonder at the desire for companionship that

motivated a round trip journey ofkilometres. Whatever the reason

forthis extended journey, Descartes returned immediately to the solitude

of his northern outpost. During the previous month he had been faced

with the final irritant in his disagreement with Regius, and with the new

book by Revius that systematically criticized his metaphysics. He ignored

Revius – according to Rivet, he was not worth getting angry with – and

drafted a short reply to Regius in theNotes on a Certain Manifesto,which

was published officially in January.There are signs in his response