Descartes: A Biography

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

 Notes to Pages–

writing anything except such impertinent paralogisms when he was searching for

the truth, it would have been a miracle had he found it when his only intention was

to slander someone whom he hated. I have nothing to reply to this letter, except

that there is not a single word in it against me that is not false and without proof.

Iwould be very sorry if you took the trouble to send me his other letters, because

wehave enough paper here for its most ignoble of uses and his letters are no good

foranything else.’ Descartes to Mersenne, September(iii.).

.Descartes to Mersenne,June(ii.); to Mersenne,March(ii.);

to Mersenne,March(ii.). However, Descartes later requested that some

of the offensive comments about Beaugrand be deleted or moderated (Descartes

to Mersenne,July: ii.–).

.Descartes hoped that Mydorge would adjudicate the merits of both sides and

would favour Descartes (ii.).

.Descartes to Mersenne,November, where he is surprised that Fermat

was still objecting to theDioptricsalthough ‘he does not understand at all what he

thinks he has refuted’ (ii.).

.Descartes to Mersenne,April.Hewrote to Debeaune the same day: ‘I

think it would be poor form if I stopped to chase a little dog who only barks at me

and does not have enough strength to bite’ (April: ii.).

.See Mahoney (),, and the text from Fermat’s letter to Mersenne, Septem-

ber, quoted on p.:‘Iplanned to let you know my thoughts on that subject

later; but, apart from the fact that I cannot satisfy myself yet, I shall await all the

experiments that you have done or that you will do, following my request, on the

various proportions between angles of incidence and those of refraction.’

.Algebra ofte Nieuwe Stel-Regel().

.There were detailed diplomatic messages sent in both directions, with Huygens

helping to find a compromise and Van Zurck acting as an intermediary, before

the precise conditions of the contest were agreed upon and the terms of refer-

ence and identity of the jury were decided. The compromise reached by the two

parties accepted the professors of mathematics at Leiden, Andreas van Berlikom

(secretary of the city of Rotterdam), and Bernard Schotanus (professor of law and

mathematics at Utrecht); ii..

.Descartes to Regius,May(iii.).

.He was inaugurated onSeptember.

.‘Mr Reneri came here and brought me the exact height of the Utrecht tower.

It is exactlyroyal feet, including the weather-cock at the top’ (Descartes to

Mersenne,August,: ii.–). Reneri’s visit is also confirmed by Descartes

to Huygens,August:‘Ihad written the first part of this letter when Mr

Reneri arrived here and told me that Mr Pollot is among the prisoners taken

atCallo [the Callo fort near Antwerp had been lost by the Dutch onJune]’

(ii.–).

.Saumaise wrote (March) that Descartes had ‘a large number of followers in

these quarters, so much so that his book is read publicly in the Utrecht Academy

byaprofessor of philosophy called Reyneri’. Quoted in Cohen (),.