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

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Once More into Battle:

The Leiden Theologians

()

I shall ask only for justice. If I cannot obtain it, it seems best that I prepare

myself very calmly to retreat.

T

winter of–was too cold for Descartes even to travel to The

Hague. His last visit there had been toward the end of November

, and he deferred his next trip for another four months, until the end

of March.As in the previous winter, this reluctance of a formerly

inveterate traveller was not due exclusively to the weather. He was also

beginning to feel old and infirm, and his thoughts turned once more to

considerations of mortality. Thus when Huygens mentioned the musical

compositions of their late friend Bannius, Descartes told him that he did

not value them highly, and then added: ‘If I die only of old age, I would

still like some day to write about musical theory.’At about the same

time, he told Picot about changes in his daily routine. He had reduced his

evening meal, he said, because his usual eating habits made him feel heavy

and disturbed his night’s sleep. That might have seemed trivial in other

circumstances. Now, however, Descartes thought it was a warning sign of

imminent ageing and a more reliable indicator of advancing years than his

grey hair.Baillet noticed a number of related symptoms of Descartes’

awareness of ageing. He lost interest in writing; he changed his long-

established pattern of working late into the night; and he limited overland

journeys to those he could complete with less physical effort.

During the last two or three years of his life, he seemed a little more opposed to the work

involved in writing....he gave time willingly, after dinner, to conversation with his

friends, to cultivating plants in his garden, or to walking. He previously liked physical

exercise well enough and he often took exercise during his recreation time. He used

to ride a horse willingly, even when it was possible to travel by barge on the canals.

However, his sedentary lifestyle made him so unaccustomed to this kind of effort that,

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