Cartesius Page #16

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come when I can live with Francine

and you as a family, just

like every other man does.

I pray to God every day for this.

Mr Descartes, your servant

has prepared the horses.

You should come to

Dventer more often.

I know. I thank you for

what you're doing for Elena.

I'll come back soon.

She's a really beautiful

creature, because she's perfect.

For me, it's like a miracle.

She's not a miracle, she's one

of nature's perfect machines,

her eyes, the pupils...

I'm going.

May God bless you.

Wave goodbye to dad.

Wave, wave.

But you talked to me

about a different title:

The project of a universal science.

At Paris and elsewhere scholastics are

ready to accuse all novelty as heresy.

A good friar advised me to be prudent.

This time again it was

your friend Father Mersenne.

He must be a very prudent man.

I'll begin to compose the reasoning

on the method straightaway,

it'll be ready quickly, very quickly.

Tomorrow I'll bring you the dedication which

you must print on the first three copies.

The first I shall address

to the Prince of Orange,

the sovereign of this country, the

second to Luigi XIII, king of France,

and the third to his prime

minister, Cardinal Richelieu.

Gentlemen.

I thank you for coming.

I admire you greatly, my dear Rene.

Will you accompany me home

at the end of the debate?

No, I can't madam , I must

leave straightaway for Samport.

Are to going to find

your daughter Francine?

Yes, I 'm going back to her.

Go, they're waiting for you.

There are numerous

objections to your treatise.

Then tell me your

objections, gentleman.

You have affirmed that you can be

certain about one single point:

that of being a thing that thinks,

but you still haven't told us

what this thing that thinks is for you.

You cannot say if the thing

that thinks is an entity

which through different and

secret movements produces that action

which we call

thought

You say, I am a thing that thinks,

I think, I am a thinking thing,

therefore I exist, therefore I am a

spirit, a soul an intellect a reason.

In my opinion, the

deduction is not exact,

it's as if you said, I'm a thinking

thing, therefore I'm a thought.

Or, I'm intelligent,

therefore I am an intellect.

It'd be like saying ,

I'm someone on a walk,

therefore I am a walk.

We cannot perceive any

act without its subject.

A thought without a thing that thinks,

science without a thing that knows

and a walk without a walker

and from this I seem to be able to

reach that something thought of

is also a bodily thing.

You sustain that the

idea of a sovereign being

cannot be born from itself,

but that it must have been infused

in you and in all men from outside,

but do you really believe that this idea

would ever have been born in your spirit

if you had spent all

your live in a dessert

and not in the company

of learned persons?

The Canadians, the Hurons and other

savages do not have this idea inside them.

Your idea of God is no different

by nature than the idea

of a number or of a line

that you say is infinite.

We do not find a single

word in your writings

concerning the immortality

of the human soul

that I believe you shouldn't

have overlooked demonstrating

to confound all those who

are unworthy of immortality

because they deny it,

perhaps because they fear it.

Mr Descartes, you have written

a subtle logical work,

the perfect mechanics of reason,

without ever referring to feelings

to passion, the heart of man,

you have never cited the Bible,

and in writing of God, you have never

revealed that his nature is a mystery,

from which the need for

faith is born in us.

By its nature,

faith is an impulse of the soul

that lives beyond reason

and illuminates it.

With your writings however, you have

demonstrated that there is nothing,

beyond reason capable of

leading man to the truth.

Gentlemen, I have listened to your

objections with great satisfaction,

because they have made me realise

your kindness towards me

and your piety to God.

So, I can only be happy,

not only because you

have judged my reasoning

worthy of your censure, but also

because you do not object to anything

about it, that I cannot

reply rather easily to.

Concerning the things that

belong to the spirit

until today we have

only had ideas.

Very confused ones and mixed up with the

ideas that come to us from sensitive things.

This is the first and main reason

that has impeded us from clearly

understanding everything

we can about God and the soul

and I think it no small

thing if I firstly show you

in which way it is necessary

to distinguish the properties,

and qualities of the spirit,

from those of the body

and how they can be recognised.

Gentlemen , this will be

a considerable enterprise.

Have you got the drafts

of the dedication?

Here they are.

Mr Descartes would never

forgive us if we leave

Any printing errors in his new book:

''Le Meditationes

de prima philosofia''.

Mr Descartes is very careful,

even about spelling and commas.

But aren't you coming back to

Paris for the end of the work.

No, I'm going to stay

in the Low Countries still.

To the Deacon and Professors

of the holy faculty of theology of Paris.

Mr Descartes is very prudent.

Certainly.

As a wise man knows how to be,

but ever since I've known him,

he's always sincerely said and

written everything he thinks.

He has written about geometry and

mathematics, optics and physiology

to find a new way to philosophise

in which no reason

is permitted that does not

possess absolute

mathematical evidence.

This has been his

research since childhood.

Gentlemen, however strong

my reasoning may be,

I cannot hope that it will

have a great effect on spirits

if you do not take it

into your protection,

and I have no doubt that you will do

me the honour of taking such good care

of this text, and to correct

it first and foremost.

After this the reasons by

which I prove that God exists

and that the human soul

differs from the body

will be absolutely

clear and evident

and then I hope that you will declare

all this and testify this in public.

Truth will lead all

men of culture and intelligence

to subscribe to

your judgement.

When I say God,

I mean an infinite substance

from which I and all other

things have been created

and produced and I being a finite entity, could

not have the notion of an infinite substance,

if such notion had not

been inculcated in me

by a really

infinite substance.

Mr Wigens has arrived.

Let him in.

Rene!

Costantino.

See?

Praise, objections, accusations.

It's success, but together with success,

God has given me the greatest of pains.

My father died in France

and no one told me

for fear of disturbing me,

as my brother wrote to me,

and Francine is also dead.

The light of my eyes,

who came to live

in this house

together with Elena.

I lived a short time,

too short a time with Francine.

Science has prevented

me from living.

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