Descartes: A Biography

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

In Search of a Career (–) 

He seems to have visited Italy three years later, but without any indication

onthat occasion of a pilgrimage to Loreto.

It is not clear whether Descartes continued his travels toward Prague,

perhaps still in the service of the duke of Bavaria’s army, or whether he

witnessed the Battle of the White Mountain, in November.The

defeat of Frederick meant that he had to evacuate the palace at Prague, but

he could not return to Heidelberg – where he had left his wife and family –

because it had meantime fallen to the Spanish. He moved initially to Berlin

and then to The Hague, where his uncle, Prince Maurits, offered him

accommodations. During this painful defeat and retreat, the daughter

of Frederick and Elizabeth, also called Elizabeth, was barely two years

old. Frederick subsequently died of the plague in, and his wife and

children remained in rather modest circumstances in The Hague for many

years subsequently. The young exiled Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia was

later to emerge in thesasone of Descartes’ most subtle critics and

most favoured correspondents.

Descartes returned from Germany some time inor,but

there is no clear indication of where he went. He probably returned by

a similar long detour, through Poland and across the North Sea to West

Friesland, during the course of which he had an opportunity to display

his fencing skills while crossing the river Elbe. He was travelling with his

valet as his only companion, and naturally spoke French with him in the

crowded confines of the sailing boat. The sailors on board mistook him for

aforeign merchant and presumed that he must have been carrying a lot

of money. So they conspired to rob him on the journey and to throw him

overboard, but they made the mistake of assuming that the ‘merchant’ did

not understand what they were saying to each other in his presence. As

they were about to implement their nefarious plan, however, Descartes

jumped up suddenly, drew his sword with unexpected ferocity, spoke to

them in their own language, and threatened to kill them all. The story, as

told by Baillet, concludes with the heroic safe return of the French cavalier

and his valet to their chosen destination.

Descartes was then about twenty-five years old. He returned from his

long journey with a somewhat clearer picture of what he wished to do with

his life. The period between coming to the United Provinces inand

returning from Germany three or four years later helped to confirm him

in his career choice. As he recalls in theDiscourse on Method,‘Idecided to

review the various occupations that are open to people in this life, and to