Descartes: A Biography

c CUNYB/Clarke     December, :

Thoughts of Retirement 

to Egmond, by news of continued political disturbances associated with

the Fronde in September.

This episode sparked a number of reflections about the reasons for the

sudden change of mind and, just as much, a certain amount of brooding

about where Descartes was likely to spend his remaining days. Having

spent most of the winter in relative isolation in Egmond and having failed

to keep his original promise to spend the winter of–with Picot in

Paris, he wrote to three different correspondents in Februaryabout

the pressing issue of where he would live. He explained to Picot that he

was living in ‘the solitude of Egmond as peacefully and with as much

contentment as he had ever enjoyed’ (v.), and that his main reason

forleaving France was the political instability that continued to disturb

his native country. When such considerations were combined with what

he described as ‘a dread of ever undertaking another journey’, Descartes

acknowledged that he seemed destined ‘to spend the rest of his life in

Holland, that is, in a country which no longer possessed the attractions

that it previously had to retain him’ (v.).

The public beheading of Charles I in London,February,was

reported within a week to The Hague. Although the events that led up

to this regicide were in many ways peculiar to England and Scotland,

and were particularly influenced by the dominant personality of Oliver

Cromwell, the climax of the confrontation between the English king and

Parliament confirmed the general political uncertainty that was equally

evident in France. Descartes wrote to Elizabeth onFebruary to offer his

condolences on the execution of her uncle, which he describes obliquely

as ‘the fatal conclusion of the tragedies of England’ (v.). In the course

of claiming that such a public death is much more glorious than dying in

one’s bed, he refers once again to his own decision to remain in Egmond.

As far as I am concerned, since I am not attached to living in any particular place, I

would have no difficulty in exchanging these provinces or even France itself for that

country [i.e., the Palatinate] if I could find there an equally secure peace, even if I were

drawn there by nothing more than the beauty of the countryside. However, there is no

place in the world, no matter how primitive or inconvenient, where I would not think

of myself as happy to pass the rest of my days if your Highness were there and I were

able to serve you in some way. (v.)

Apart from the more factual comments on life in Egmond, this is another

case in which literary style and deference to nobility induced Descartes

to say much more than he really meant. He had no more intention of