Descartes: A Biography

P: PHU/IrP
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The Principles of Philosophy() 

a more limited readership. The other two (more accessible) essays were

translated by a French Huguenot refugee, Etienne de Courcelles (–

). Meanwhile, thePrincipleswas eventually completed onJuly,

with two separate ‘privileges’ to cover France and the United Provinces.

On his journey south, Descartes also visited Johan van Beverwijck

(–)inDordrecht, from where he embarked by boat for France.

Beverwijck had graduated in medicine from Padua and, having returned

to Dordrecht, had been administrator of the city orphanage for ten years

before being appointed professor of anatomy and medicine at the local

Illustrious School. He had asked Descartes (June)tocontribute

to a collection of essays,Epistolary Questions,inwhich prominent intel-

lectuals would write about topical issues.Descartes wrote about the

circulation of the blood. While acknowledging the originality of Harvey as

the first to discover and publish the fact that blood circulates, he dissented

from the English physician concerning the explanation of circulation. For,

according to Descartes, all the factors that explain blood circulation are

‘genuinely mechanical’.

Despite the relative isolation in which Descartes lived, there was rarely

a time when he felt free to undertake a journey that required more than a

few days. He invariably felt that he had to remain ‘at home’ to complete

some project, to avoid the swiftly changing contingencies, on land and

sea, of the war with Spain, or to finalize a long-running dispute in which

he almost obsessively hoped to claim victory. The summer ofwas

no different than usual. He was anxiously awaiting the final printing of

thePrinciples, and he was watching equally anxiously the way in which

Groningen University was handling his complaint about Schoock. He

could do nothing about the former – the books could be forwarded to him

in Paris. He asked Tobias Andreae to keep a watchful eye on Groningen

in his absence, and to pass on word of any developments through Van

Hogelande (in Leiden).

Just before departure, Regius wrote to Descartes to wish him a safe

journey and to express his concerns about a possible long-term separation

between them, which he compared to the separation of the soul and body.

This seems slightly exaggerated in the context of their growing estrange-

ment, which was to be confirmed inwith the publication of Regius’

book on physics. For the moment, at least according to Baillet, Regius

worried that Descartes might remain in France and that they would never

see each other again.