Descartes: A Biography

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

In Search of a Career (–) 

letters between Mersenne and his special friend about musical harmonies.

Descartes had apparently assumed that Beeckman was still living in Mid-

delburg, but when he went there in, hoping to renew his friendship,

he found that Beeckman had been appointed to teach at Dordrecht in May

of the previous year.Mersenne visited Beeckman in,inthe course

of a lengthy journey to the United Provinces that lasted until Septem-

ber. During the visit his Dutch host discussed musical harmonies,

oneofMersenne’s favourite topics, with the Minim friar. Beeckman may

have shown Mersenne some entries from his journal, and he subsequently

wrote to him about the discussion of musical issues that he had had ten

years earlier with Descartes.OnOctober of the same year, Beeck-

man wrote again to Mersenne, and transcribed for him a section from

Descartes’Compendium of Music.Hedid not claim to have written it him-

self, but clearly acknowledged that it had been sent to him by Descartes,

‘our friend’, who had written about the topic ‘in his book’.Mersenne

lost no time in telling Descartes about Beeckman’s correspondence, and

the response from Descartes was a degree of outrage and apparent per-

sonal hurt that is almost inexplicable in its intensity. Descartes thanked

Mersenne (October)‘foralerting me to the ingratitude of my friend’

(i.). By December, the incensed Frenchman had taken back the original

text of theCompendium of Musicfrom Beeckman,and a full year later he

wrote to Beeckman to explain his anger.

I retrieved myMusicfrom you last year, not because I needed it, but because I was told

that you talked about it as if I had learned it from you. I did not wish to write to you

about it immediately, lest I appear to doubt too much the trust of a friend simply on

the word of someone else. However, since many other things have confirmed that you

prefer stupid boasting to friendship and truth, I shall warn you in a few words. If you

claim to have taught something to someone, it is repulsive to do so even if you speak

the truth; when it is false, however, it is much more repulsive; finally, if you yourself

learned it from this person, it is most repulsive. (i.–)

This was as clear a signal as possible of the breach of trust and loss of

friendship between the two men. Nonetheless, Descartes indicated at the

conclusion of this letter that he could still regard Beeckman’s indiscretion

as a mistake rather than a fault, and that it might be possible for them to

recover their previous amicable relationship.

However, all hope of a peaceful resolution was destroyed by an extremely

querulous and cranky letter from Descartes onOctober,which

seems to have been triggered in part by the fact that Beeckman implied