DESCARTES 



published his views. In this frame of mind, Chris- 

 tine, Queen of Sweden, offered him a retreat by 

 giving him a place in her Court. This he accepted. 

 She was very kind to him, and the honor of being 

 sought after by a great Queen served to confound his 

 persecutors. But the change in his mode of life and 

 the early hours of rising, to which he was not accus- 

 tomed, affected his health. Always very delicate, he 

 was seized with an affection of the throat, and died 

 February 11, 1650, aged fiifty-four years.* 



* J. B. Biot, et Feuillot De Conches, Biographic Universelle, 1855. 



71 



