CHAPTER VI 



EXTENSION OF THE STUDY OF PHILOSOPHY AMONG 

 THE LAITY THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF DES- 

 CARTES OPPOSITION TO THE ARISTOTELIAN 

 DOGMAS AND TO ALL AUTHORITY THAT COULD 

 CONTROL THOUGHT AND LEARNING. 



DURING the greater part of the sixteenth century 

 the learning that before then had practically been 

 confined to the religious orders had by that time 

 thoroughly penetrated the higher classes of the laity. 

 Men of rank, of wealth and of leisure became also 

 often men of learning. Belles-Lettres and poetry 

 principally interested them; but an ever-increasing 

 number devoted their time to the study of Philosophy 



Born under happier influences than the ill-fated 

 Bruno, RENE DESCARTES, the son of a noble family, 

 began his life in Touraine, France, March 31, 1596. 

 Educated by the Jesuits, he early showed, though 

 delicate in health, a passionate love for study. On 

 arriving at his philosophical course he soon found 

 the emptiness of so-called science, as then taught; 



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