Descartes: A Biography

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

 Notes to Pages–

theDiscourseat, which coincides with the evidence available from correspon-

dence at that time. He also says, in Part III of theDiscourse, that ‘it is exactly eight

years since this desire made me resolve to move away from all the places where I had

acquaintances and to retire here’ (vi.). Thus, he probably moved to the United

Provinces in.

.Descartes to Mersenne,March:‘Imayleave this country completely within

amonth or two’ (i.); Descartes to Mersenne,March:‘Iamgetting ready

atthe moment to travel to England in five or six weeks time’ (i.). However, he

also wrote to Balzac,April, that in the two years since he had left France

he had never been tempted, even once, to return there (i.–).

.In a letter datedDecember, Descartes asked Mersenne not to tell anyone

where he was staying and to suggest that he may already have left for England (i.).

The original reasons for moving to the United Provinces are confirmed in a letter to

Huygens,June. ‘When I decided to leave my country and to distance myself

from my acquaintances, in order to lead a more tranquil and peaceful life than I

had led previously, I would never have decided to retire to these provinces and to

prefer them to many other places (where there was no war in progress and where the

purity and freshness of the air seemed more appropriate to intellectual work), had I

not been persuaded by my great respect for his Highness [Prince Frederik Hendrik

of Nassau] to entrust myself enormously to his protection and government. Since

then I have enjoyed fully the leisure and peace that I hoped to find in the protection

of his military power....’ (i.)

.When Mersenne planned to take a trip to Italy in, Descartes advised him that

Italy was very unhealthy for French people, and he hinted that he himself might

have gone to live there, rather than in the United Provinces, had he not been afraid

of such illnesses. Descartes to Mersenne,November(ii.).

.Descartes to Mersenne,March(i.).

.Suggested by Theo Verbeek (private communication). Descartes later wrote, in the

Dioptrics:‘About thirty years ago, a man named Metius, from the town of Alkmaar

in Holland, a man who never studied but whose father and brother were profes-

sors of mathematics, and who particularly enjoyed making mirrors and burning

glasses...happened by chance to look through two lenses....’ (vi.)

.By, Descartes had changed his mind about Ferrier’s skills when he wrote to

Mersenne (March): ‘As regards Ferrier, let him be. It seems as if he will succeed

atnothing, and I think that the most modest turner or blacksmith would be more

capable than he is of demonstrating the effect of the lenses’ (ii.).

.Descartes to Mersenne,November(i.). There are other refer-

ences to this provisional metaphysics in Descartes to Mersenne, March

(i.).

.Descartes often mentioned his reluctance to become involved in theology, in which

he claimed not to be competent. See, for example, Descartes to Mersenne,April

(i.), and Descartes to Mersenne,May: ‘The question:whether it is

consistent with the goodness of God that men are damned for eternity[in Latin], comes

from theology. That is why you might allow me, please, to say absolutely nothing