Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

embarking on a new life in the German lands than he had of returning to

his native France.

Descartes’ letters to Chanut during the same month give a more accurate

impression of how he felt about where he lived and the likelihood of change

in the coming years. Five months after his return from France, he felt free

to express his great disappointment about the visit, whereas immediately

after his return, he had restrained himself from writing about the reasons

forcoming back suddenly to Egmond.

I was very glad not to write anything on my return, so that I would not appear to

reproach those who invited me to France. I thought of them as friends who had invited

me to dine at their table and, when I arrived at their house, I found their kitchen in

disarray and their cooking pot turned upside down. That is why I came back here

without saying a word about it, so as not to make them more vexed. However, this

experience has taught me never to undertake another journey which relies on promises,

even if they are written on parchment. And, although there is nothing to keep me here,

except that I know of no other place I would prefer to be, I see that I am in great danger

of spending the rest of my days here. For I fear that our commotions in France may

die down soon and I am daily becoming more lazy, so that it would be difficult for me

to decide to suffer the inconvenience of another journey.

He hoped that Chanut might return to France in due course and pass

through the United Provinces, and that they could arrange to meet then

without Descartes having to travel a great distance.

Descartes’ consistent hints about the political uncertainty of France,

his desire for solitude, and his unwillingness to travel all suggested that

he would remain in Egmond for the rest of his life. He had spent more

time there than in any other place during his adult years, and, on balance,

it had fewer disadvantages than other places he might live in. Somewhat

unpredictably, however, the same correspondence with Chanut in which

he made these feelings explicit was to result soon afterward in an invitation

from Queen Christina to visit Stockholm.

Invitation to Sweden

When Gustavus Adolphus died at the Battle of Lutzen in ̈ , his throne

was inherited by his only child, a six-year-old daughter named Christina.

Christina had challenged the competence of her nurses to identify her sex

atbirth, since they had first identified her as a son and only later as a

daughter. Although the precise reason for the misidentification remains