xiv.] ON DESCARTES &quot; DISCOURSE.&quot; 299 



this last motive to weigh with me. They say that the most 

 dangerous thing one can do in a thunderstorm is to shelter 

 oneself under a great tree, and the history of Descartes life 

 shows how narrowly he escaped being riven by the lightnings, 

 which were more destructive in his time than in ours. 



Descartes lived and died a good Catholic, and prided himself 

 upon having demonstrated the existence of God and of the soul 

 of man. As a reward for his exertions, his old friends the 

 Jesuits put his works upon the &quot; Index,&quot; and called him an 

 Atheist ; while the Protestant divines of Holland declared him 

 to be both a Jesuit and an Atheist. His books narrowly 

 escaped being burned by the hangman ; the fate of Vanini was 

 dangled before his eyes; and the misfortunes of Galileo so 

 alarmed him, that he well-nigh renounced the pursuits by 

 which the world has so greatly benefited, and was driven into 

 subterfuges and evasions which were not worthy of him. 



&quot; Very cowardly,&quot; you may say ; and so it was. But you must 

 make allowance for the fact that, in the seventeenth century, not 

 only did heresy mean possible burning, or imprisonment, but the 

 very suspicion of it destroyed a man s peace, and rendered the 

 calm pursuit of truth difficult or impossible. I fancy that 

 Descartes was a man to care more about being worried and 

 disturbed, than about being burned outright; and, like many 

 other men, sacrificed for the sake of peace and quietness, 

 what he would have stubbornly maintained against downright 

 violence. 



However this may be, let those who are sure they would have 

 done better throw stones at him. I have no feelings but those 

 of gratitude and reverence for the man who did what he did, 

 when he did ; and a sort of shame that any one should repine 

 against taking a fair share of such treatment as the world 

 thought good enough for him. 



Finally, it occurs to me that, such being my feeling about the 

 matter, it may be useful to all of us if I ask you, &quot; What is 

 yours ? Do you think that the Christianity of the seventeenth 

 century looks nobler and more attractive for such treatment of 



