DESCARTES DESCENT. 



651 



to their profession. He was distinguished for the 

 skill and boldness with which he performed opera- 

 tions. This happy natural talent, this surgical in- 

 stinct, that guided him in the most difficult cases, 

 compensated for his want of professional learning, to 

 which he was so indifferent, that, in his later years, 

 he read very little ; and, as he was entirely ignorant 

 of internal diseases, he was indignant, when, at the 

 foundation of the ecole de sante, in which he became 

 professor of clinical surgery, the study of medicine 

 and surgery were connected. He died, while at- 

 tending upon the son of Louis XVI., in the Temple, 

 of a violent fever, June 1, 1795. Desault wrote only 

 two small treatises ; but the Journal de Chirurgie, 

 in which his scholars published his lectures delivered 

 in the Hotel-Dieu, and the (Euvres Chirurgicales , 

 edited by Bichet under Desault's name, contain his 

 whole system. 



DESCARTES, RENE (Renatus Cartesius), an ori- 

 ginal thinker, and reformer of philosophy, with whom 

 the modem or new philosophy is often considered as 

 commencing, was born in 1596, at La Haye, in Tou- 

 raine, and died at Stockholm, in 1650. While pur- 

 suing his education in the Jesuits' school at La 

 Fleche, where he studied philology, mathematics, 

 and astronomy, his superior intellect manifested it- 

 self. After having read much, without coming to 

 any certain conclusions, he travelled. Both his birth 

 and inclination led him to embrace the military pro- 

 fession, and he fought as a volunteer at the siege of 

 Rochelle, and in Holland under prince Maurice. 

 While he served in Holland, a mathematical problem, 

 in Dutch, pasted up in the streets of Breda, met his 

 eye. Not being acquainted with the language, he 

 asked a man who stood near him to translate the 

 problem to him. This man happened to be profes- 

 sor Beecman, principal of the university of Dort, and 

 himself a mathematician. He smiled at the question 

 of the young officer, and was greatly surprised, the 

 next morning, to find that he had solved it. From 

 hence Descartes went to Germany, and entered the 

 Bavarian service. His situation, however, affording 

 him little opportunity for pursuing his favourite 

 studies, he left the army in 1621, and visited Mora- 

 via, Silesia, Poland, Pomerania, and the shores of 

 the Baltic. In order to see West Friesland with ad- 

 vantage, he purchased a boat, and embarked with a 

 single valet. The sailors, thinking him a foreign 

 merchant, with much money in his baggage, resolved 

 to kill him. Imagining him ignorant of their lan- 

 guage, -they conversed of their plan openly. Des- 

 cartes, seeing his danger, drew his sword, addressed 

 them in their own tongue, and threatened to stab the 

 first man that should offer him violence. The sai- 

 lors were overawed, and gave up their design. After 

 a variety of travels, he remained in Holland, where 

 he composed most of his writings, from 1629 to 1649, 

 drew about him many scholars, and was engaged in 

 many learned controversies, especially with theolo- 

 gians. 



His celebrated system abounds in singularities 

 and originalities ; but a spirit of independent. thought 

 prevails throughout it, and has contributed to excite 

 the same spirit in others. It lias done much to give 

 to philosophical inquiries a new direction, and found 

 many adherents, especially in England, France, and 

 Germany. Descartes founds his belief of the exist- 

 ence of a thinking being on the consciousness of 

 thought : "I think, therefore I exist " (cogito, ergo 

 sum). He developed his system with much ingenu- 

 ity, in opposition to the empiric philosophy of the 

 English, and the Aristotelian scholastics, and adopt- 

 ed the rigorous, systematic, or mathematical method 

 of reasoning. From his system originated the notion 

 among the moderns, that the very existence and cer- 



linty of philosophy consists in definitions, arguments, 

 nd a methodical arrangement of them. The think- 



taint 



and a methodical 



ing being, says Descartes, or the soul, evidently 

 differs from the body, whose existence consists in 

 space or extension, by its simplicity and immaterial- 

 ity (whence, also, its immortality), and by the free- 

 dom that pertains to it. But every perception of the 

 soul is not clear and distinct ; it is in a great de- 

 gree involved in doubt, and is so far an imperfect, 

 finite being. This imperfection of its own leads it to 

 the idea of an absolutely perfect being. (He, there- 

 fore, here makes use of the so called onfological proof 

 of the existence of God, in a different manner from 

 that in which Anselm of Canterbury had, somewliat 

 earlier, employed the same ; and hence the name of 

 the " Cartesian proof.") Pie placed at the head of 

 his system the idea of an absolutely perfect being, 

 which he considers as an innate idea, and deduces 

 from it all further knowledge of truth. The princi- 

 pal problems of metaphysics he conceived to be sub- 

 stantiality and causality. He contributed greatly to 

 the advancement of mathematics and physics. He 

 made use of the discoveries and observations of others, 

 defining them accurately, and assigning them their 

 place in his system. The higher departments of geo- 

 metry (to which he successfully applied analysis), 

 as well as optics, dioptrics, and mechanics, were 

 greatly extended by him, their method simplified, and 

 thereby the way prepared for the great discoveries 

 made. in the sciences by Newton and Leibnitz ; for 

 instance, he contributed much to define and illustrate 

 the true law of refraction. His system of the uni- 

 verse attracted great attention in his time, but has 

 been long since exploded. It rests on the strange 

 hypothesis of the heavenly vortices, immense currents 

 of etherial matter, with which space is filled, and by 

 which he accounted for the motion of the planets. 

 He laboured much to extend the Copernican system 

 of astronomy. 



Descartes loved independence ; he nevertheless suf- 

 fered himself to be persuaded to go to Stockholm, upon 

 the invitation of queen Christina, who was very desir- 

 ous of his society. He died at that place, four months 

 after his arrival. His body was carried to Paris in 

 1666, and interred anew in the church of St Gene- 

 vieve du Mont. Descartes was never married, but 

 had one natural daughter, Francina, who died in his 

 arms, in her fifth year, and whose loss he felt acutely. 

 His works have at various times been published, 

 singly and together ; as, for instance, at Amsterdam, 

 1692, 9 vols. 4to. Bailie and Tarpelius have written 

 his life. See his letters ; also the eulogies on him 

 by Gaillard, Thomas, and Mercier, and Leibnitz's ac- 

 count of him in his letters. 



DESCENT, in law, is the transmission of the right 

 and title to lands to the heir, on the decease of the pro- 

 prietor, by the mere operation of law. A title by 

 descent is distinguished from a title by purchase, 

 which latter includes title by devise, as well as by 

 grant. The law of descent is, accordingly, the law 

 relating to and regulating the inheritance of estates. 

 Wherever there is an exclusive property in lands pos- 

 sessed by individuals, or, in other words, wherever 

 the soil is held, by distinct, permanent proprietaries, 

 the law provides for the disposition of the possession 

 in case of the death of the proprietor, without any 

 designation of heirs by himself. It is a theory of all 

 states that the title to lands is originally in the go- 

 vernment. The government considers itself to be the 

 heir to all its subjects or citizens, who leave no other 

 heir. In some countries, as in Egypt, particularly, 

 the government is the perpetual and practical owner 

 of the soil, and stands in the relation of landlord to 

 all the cultivators, who are its tenants, and pay regu- 

 lar rents. It is a theory of the tenures of lands in 



