DESCARTES. 357 



ing the minds of all thinkers, crystallized and formulated 

 in the language of Bacon, and then moving forward with 

 renewed and concentrated force. But now, there appears 

 a philosopher of the first rank, who tosses it aside as an 

 instrument inadequate for the discovery of truth, and sub- 

 stitutes pure deduction; a man skilled in mathematics, 

 wherein Bacon was most deficient, who regarded physics 

 not as did Bacon, as the basis of all science, but as merely 

 a reservoir of illustrations of his principles; who argued, 

 not from effects to causes, known to unknown, but deduced 

 eifects from causes and explained things seen by reasons 

 found by intuition. "It is not so necessary," said Des- 

 cartes, u to have a fine understanding as to apply it rightly. 

 Better progress can be made by walking slowly on the 

 right road than by running swiftly on the wrong one." 

 Bacon expresses the same idea, but the common ground is 

 reached by paths leading from totally opposite directions. 

 The ten years of delay in the publication of Descartes' 

 great treatise perhaps gave him the opportunity to make it 

 the almost perfect piece of scientific writing which it is. 

 For unswerving directness of expression, for exquisite 

 clearness, for pertinency of example, it has scarcely a rival 

 in the whole literature of physics. We have now to see 

 how the magnet and the electric were treated in the phil- 

 osophy of Descartes a philosophy essentially metaphysi- 

 cal, evolving first a clear hypothesis and then seeking to 

 reveal thereby the causes of observed phenomena. 1 



Descartes, by his vortex theory, undertook to explain 

 mechanically the solar system, the formation of planets, 

 the relation of the tides to the moon, and to subject the 

 laws of motion to scientific analysis. 2 He assumed 3 matter 

 uniform in character throughout the universe, to be 

 divided into polygonal masses. These having a circular 



1 Lewes: The Biog. Histy. of Phily., N. Y., 1857, Vol. II, 1445. 

 2 Mahaffy: Des Cartes, Edin. and Lon., 1880. 



3 Des Cartes: Principia Philosophise (ultima editio), Amsterdam, 1692, 

 Parts 3 and 4. 



