Descartes: A Biography

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Once More into Battle 

was that his ‘domestic affairs and other reasons’ required it. By his own

admission, the royal pension did not impose any condition on where he

lived. The only basis for the apparent obligation, therefore, was that he had

promised Picot to spend the winter of–with him in Paris. If there

were any reasons not to publicize that promise, Descartes observed the

proprieties of confidentiality by camouflaging his plans under the cover of

generalities.