19G DESCARTES' DISCOURSE ox METHOD TV 



perpendicularly downwards as you are occasion- 

 ally told they do. And I must admit, also, that a 

 particular and personal motive weighed with me, 

 namely, the desire to show that a certain dis- 

 course, 1 which brought a great storm about my 

 head some time ago, contained nothing but the 

 ultimate development of the views of the father of 

 modern philosophy. I do not know if I have 

 been quite wise in allowing this last motive to 

 weigh with me. They say that the most dan- 

 gerous thing one can do in a thunderstorm is to 

 shelter oneself under a great tree, and the history 

 of Descartes' life shows how narrowly he escaped 

 being riven by the lightnings, which were more 

 destructive in his time than in ours. 



Descartes lived and died a good Catholic, and 

 prided himself upon having demonstrated the 

 existence of God and of the soul of man. As a 

 reward for his exertions, his old friends the Jesuits 

 put his works upon the " Index," and called him 

 an Atheist; while the Protestant divines of 

 Holland declared him to be both a Jesuit ami an 

 Atheist. His books narrowly escaped being 

 burned by the hangman ; the fate of Vauini was 

 dangled before his eyes; and the misfortunes of 

 Galileo so alarmed him, that he well-nigh re- 

 nounced the pursuits by which the world has so 

 greatly benefited, and was driven into subterfuges 

 and evasions which were not worthy of him. 

 1 See above, The Physical Basis of Life. 



