840 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tempted to account for the structure of the universe, are contained 

 in this work. The first of the three laws affirms that every body, 

 so far as it is unaffected by extraneous causes, always perseveres 

 in the same state of motion or rest ; and the second that simple or 

 elementary motion is always in a straight line. " These doctrines 

 of inertia, and of the composite character of curvilinear motion," 

 says Mr. Wallace, " were scarcely apprehended even by Kepler or 

 Galileo; but they follow naturally from the geometrical analysis 

 of Descartes." He taught that extended matter has no limits to 

 its extent, though the power of God has divided it by lines dis- 

 criminating its parts in endless ways. He denied the possibility 

 of a vacuum, and the existence of atoms or ultimate particles, and 

 regarded matter as uniform in character throughout the uni- 

 verse — all of which views are consistent with what may be logi- 

 cally deduced from the results of the latest investigations. In the 

 universe packed with matter, no particle can move unless all the 

 others move too. Hence we have universal motion, taking the 

 form of " a host of more or less circular movements, and of vortices 

 or whirlpools of material particles, varying in size and velocity." 

 These vortices, which were supposed to give rise to three kinds of 

 matter and to the phenomena of radiating light, were made to 

 account for the existence and motions of all the stars and systems, 

 the sun and planets, and the earth. Descartes applied his vorti- 

 cellar theory not only to all the phenomena of physics, but also to 

 those of organic life, including that in animals and man ; whence 

 he ventured to show that man and the animals are really ma- 

 chines, with the single difference that man has a rational soul, 

 while the animals have not. In the Treatise on Man and the 

 Formation of the Foetus, which was published after his death, 

 Descartes expounded the doctrine of animal spirits. Other works 

 are the Treatise on the Passions of the Soul, which was translated 

 into French for Madame Elizabeth, Princess Palatine ; and the 

 Rules for the Direction of the Mind, a posthumous work. Des- 

 cartes was never married, but he is believed to have had a natural 

 daughter, Francine, who died when she was five years old. He is 

 described as having been " a little man, with a large head, project- 

 ing brow, prominent nose, and eyes wide apart, with hair coming 

 down almost to his eyebrows," and feeble voice, and as usually 

 dressed in black. 



On his death, Queen Christina wanted him buried with the 

 kings of Sweden ; but Chanut, who is supposed to have carried 

 out his wishes, had his body modestly interred in the cemetery of 

 the Orphans' Hospital, where Catholic foreigners were usually 

 buried. Thence his remains were a few years afterward trans- 

 ferred to France, where, after several changes, they were finally 

 deposited, in 1819, in the Church of Saint Germain des Pres. 



