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RENE DESCARTES. 



1596-1650. 



OVER three hundred years ago, there was born of a noble family 

 at La Haye, near Tours in Touraine, one whose doctrines cannot 

 be passed over in any work dealing with physiological learning. 

 His early teachers were the Jesuits, then installed at La Fleche (1604- 

 1612). In 1613 he went to Paris, and at twenty-one resolved to see 

 the world in the guise of a volunteer which appears to have been 

 a usual custom with the French nobility in those days (1617). He 

 was quartered at Breda, and also at Neuburg on the Danube. While 

 still soldiering in 1619, he made what he calls a marvellous discovery- 

 it was nothing less than the solution of geometrical problems by 

 algebraical symbols. He was, indeed, the originator of analytical 

 geometry. More travels through Europe Ulm, Prague, La Eochelle, 

 Italy, Silesia still all the time studying " the great book of the world." 

 After having spent many Wanderjahre, he returned to Paris (1625-28), 

 where he made the acquaintance of the scientific men of the day, and 

 also of M. de Balzac of immortal memory, with whom later he kept up 

 an extensive correspondence. 



The Netherlands had already worked out its independence, both 

 political and religious ; Descartes was anxious to keep on good terms 

 with the Catholic Church, and he was not quite sure as to the tender 

 mercies of the "Most Christian" King. He had the fate of Galileo 

 before his eyes. Holland he called "the refuge of the Catholics." 

 Thus it came that, having made up his mind to retire from the dis- 

 tractions of society, he at the age of thirty-two sought a quiet 

 retreat in Holland, where, after nine years spent in learning and think- 

 ing, he published in 1637 his famous Discours de la Methode, &c. 

 Discourse touching the Method of using reason rightly and of seeking 

 Scientific Truth, which marks not only an epoch in human thought, 

 but also in French prose " the best prose in modern Europe." In 

 Amsterdam, he says, 



" I go to walk every day amid the Babel of a great thoroughfare with as much 

 liberty and repose as you " he is addressing Balzac " could find in your garden alleys. 

 What other place could you choose in all the world, where all the comforts of life, and 

 all the curiosities which can be desired are so easy to find as here 1 What other country 

 where you can enjoy such perfect liberty 1 " 



He learned such anatomy as he was acquainted with in Amster- 

 dam by visiting various slaughter-houses in the town. His Optics, 

 Meteors, The World (Le Monde) in which he proposed to explain 

 the a priori principles of all physics, appeared in 1632-33. His 



G 



