Descartes: A Biography

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

Notes to Pages– 

.In anniversarium Henrici Magni obitus diem().

.The languages in which the poems were written reflects the relative prominence

of the three languages in the school curriculum. Approximatelypercent were

written in Latin,percent in Greek, and onlypercent in French.

.‘Funeral oration for the anniversary of the late King, Henry the Great, given

atthe Church of St. Thomas at La Fl`eche,June,’In anniversarium(),

.

.Ibid.,.

.‘La France avoit des-ia respandu tant de pleurs / Pour la mort de son Roy, que

l’empire de l’onde / Gros de flots revageoit`alaTerre ses fleurs, / D’un Deluge

second menac ̧ant tout le monde, / L’ors que l’Astre du iour, qui va faisant la

ronde / Autour de l’univers, meu des proches malheurs. / Qui hastoient devers

nous leur course vagabonde, / Luy parla de la sorte, au fort de les douleurs. /

France, de qui les pleurs, pour la mort de ton Prince, / Nuisent par leur excez

`a toute autre Province, / Cesse de l’affliger sur son vuide tombeau, / Car Dieu

l’ayant tire tout entier de la Terre, / Au Ciel de Iupeter maintenant il esclaire, /

Pour servir aux mortels de coeleste flambeau.’In anniversarium(),. There

have been suggestions that this sonnet may have been composed by Descartes, but

there is no independent evidence to support the claim.

.Descartes was asked, in,torecommend a school where a young pupil could

be well educated in philosophy. He wrote as follows. ‘Although I do not think that

everything they teach in philosophy is as true as the Gospel, nevertheless, because

it is the key to the other sciences I think it is important to have studied the whole

course in the way they teach it in Jesuit schools before lifting one’s mind above the

pedantry in order to become truly wise. I should give this honour to my teachers,

that there is nowhere in the world where I think they teach better than at La

Fl`eche’ (October: ii.). Descartes goes on to praise his former school

because of the variety of students from different parts of the country and from

various social ranks who study there, and for the spirit of equality that pervades

the Jesuit schools.

.A copy of the poster was recently discovered glued to the back of another notice,

and it has been published with a translation and notes by Armogathe et al. (),

–.

.Montaigne (), I. xxvi (p.).

.Ibid., p..

.Ibid., p..

.Ibid., p..

.Ibid., I. xxv (p.).

Chapter

.On the Difficulty of Choosing One’s Way of Life,inBrosse (), ii..

.Forthe following, I rely on Israel (and).

.Here and throughout the book, I reserve the name ‘Holland’ for the single province

of that name rather than for the United Provinces as a whole.