Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

Descartes’ reply to Chanut, which he enclosed with a second letter that

could be shown to the queen, helps to put in context his obsequious writing

to Princess Elizabeth during the previous six years. The accompanying

note to Chanut says: ‘the enclosed letter is nothing more than a sterile

compliment. Since I was not asked about any specific issue, I did not dare

discuss any, out of respect...butIthought nevertheless that I had to write

something [for the Queen].’The letter to be shown to Christina, however,

is so excessively adulatory that one is tempted to think that Descartes rarely

meant anything he wrote to royal correspondents. He began his letter as

follows: ‘If I happened to be sent a letter from heaven and saw it descend

from the clouds, I would not be more surprised and I could not receive it

with more respect and veneration than I received the letter that it pleased

your Majesty to write to me’ (v.). This opening line was followed

bywaves of exaggerated compliments and references to the virtues of

‘her majesty’, who was so burdened by affairs of state and ‘the common

good of the whole earth’ that it would be a great honour for Descartes

to provide her with any service she requested. Having thus committed

himself in general terms, Descartes concluded: ‘I dare to protest here to

your Majesty that she could not command me to do anything that is so

difficult that I would not always be ready to do everything in my power to

obey her command’ (v.). It is the very same style that he had practised

foryears in corresponding with Elizabeth. On this occasion, however,

although he thought of it only as a ‘sterile compliment’, he left himself

open to a royal invitation to visit Sweden, to tutor this alleged paragon of

virtue and wisdom.

Without realizing that their letters had crossed in the post, Chanut

wrote again to Descartes (February), inviting him on behalf of the

queen to visit Sweden.Given the uncertainty about where the French

philosopher was living, it took some time for this letter to reach him in

Egmond. Meantime, the queen got impatient and demanded that Chanut

send another invitation onMarch. There was a Swedish ship under the

captaincy of Admiral Herman Fleming en route to Holland, and she asked

Descartes to take advantage of the opportunity to return with Fleming

to Stockholm. This plan suffered the same fate as the previous one. By

the time Fleming arrived in person at Egmond, Descartes had not even

received the royal letter of invitation, and he certainly was not yet ready

to travel to Sweden.