Descartes: A Biography

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Death in Sweden 

to Princess Elizabeth onFebruary, asking permission to retain the

letters that she had sent to Descartes and that Descartes had evidently

brought with him to Sweden. Chanut couched his request in the diplomatic

language in which he had been professionally trained.

Among his papers were found a quantity of letters, which your royal highness paid him

the honour of writing to him and which he considered precious, since some of them

were carefully folded with other important papers. I put them all aside and I took them

from the trunk without including them in the inventory. I have no doubt, Madame, that

it would benefit your reputation if it became known that you had serious and learned

correspondence with the most gifted man who has lived for many centuries. I also

knew from Mr. Descartes himself that your letters were so full of light and intelligence

that it could only redound to your glory if they were published.

Having explained that he had not compromised the privacy of the letters,

Chanut hoped for a favourable response. Elizabeth refused, however, and

Chanut had no option but to return to Princess Elizabeth in a bundle all

her letters to Descartes.In doing so, the French ambassador added a

diplomatic protest and made sure to tell Elizabeth that, as he was dying,

Descartes had asked him to inform the princess that he died ‘with the same

respect for her royal highness that he had had during his life’. However,

neither flattery nor entreaties worked. Elizabeth recovered the original

letters that she had sent Descartes and kept them.

Chanut also wrote to Huygens, although it took some weeks for news

of Descartes’ death to reach him. Huygens replied in July to express his

inconsolable grief. ‘Just as the profusion of tears which are only a useless

liquid console the afflicted, I thought that by speaking as best I could about

such a great friend – the loss of whom can never be adequately regretted in

public or in private – I might be able to mitigate the bitterness in my heart’

(v.). He found a way to alleviate his sorrow by writing several poems,

any of which could have served as Descartes’ epitaph.His famous son,

the physicist Christian Huygens, also composed a poem in French that

concludes with the lines: ‘O Nature, mourn and be the first to grieve /

The great Descartes, and show your sorrow. / When he died, you lost

the light / It was only by means of his flame that we were able to see

you.’

Descartes’ discussions with Pascal, and their competing intuitions about

the factors that influence air pressure, had spurred both men to continue

making barometric observations even after Descartes’ arrival in Stock-

holm. Now that Descartes had died, Chanut had to write to Pascal’s