Cartesius Page #5

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of everything that

exists, of light and of sound.

Mathematical operations always express

evident and concrete logic.

For example, as you know,

the equal sign is fundamental.

Mathematics demonstrates

all the possible disparities to us

in a strictly certain and exact way

and permits us to defend ourselves

from the tricks of appearances.

What I like about you sir,

is the fact that you

don't speak the language

of Scholars

and that you discuss science

in a way that none of my fellow

citizens would be capable of.

Do you know that almost all the

good Calvinists go and listen to

the sermons and don't talk of anything

else except business and theology.

You're not a Catholic are you?

No indeed not sir.

And you are certainly a Roman Catholic.

I'm French, sire

and... Catholic.

But I am sure this

will not impede me from

conversing with you.

I like you sir.

I confess that I would never have believed

in finding a mathematician and a philosopher

hidden in a soldier's uniform.

I hope you'll return to

visit me, sir, and often

as long as you are

staying here at Breda.

It would be a great honour for me.

Sir,

you didn't go to the cavalry practice

this morning,

do you also want to miss the

appointment with Mr Beeckman?

No.

These Dutch beds have made me

lose my taste for sleeping.

No, no that one.

Give me civilian clothes.

And so gentlemen

the soul of this animal,

is an inferior soul to that of man,

which is a superior soul,

and makes this stomach digest,

by extracting the juices

from the foods necessary

to maintain life.

The doctor is attributing functions

to the soul which belong to the body.

It's an ancient prejudice,

a false infantile sensation

like all sensations

and a source of ruinous errors.

Excuse me if I intervene.

Go ahead.

You are wrong in believing

sensations to be false.

When a boy dips a stick into a brook

he may believe it to be broken

when looking at it,

but if he closes his eyes

and feels the stick

along its entire length,

both in and out of the water,

he will realise that his stick is straight.

He will then have corrected the

visual sensation by touching

and will have re-established the truth

without leaving the world of sensations.

No sir.

Because in our case

the boy's reason intervened

that makes him check the touch

sensation after the visual one.

It is reason that leads

him to correct his error.

Without the control of reason,

all sensations are false.

Here is the heart of this animal

that the soul moved thanks to

the pulsing faculty

it possesses.

The doctor is making

affirmations the truth of which

he wouldn't know how to demonstrate.

He cannot tell us how

the inferior soul of this animal

acts directly on our heart.

What do you those

gentlemen object to?

Why don't they speak up

if they have something to say?

I say that to justify your

affirmations you are repeating

ancient Aristotelian theories about

the soul and that you trust in

your personal sensations.

What I teach sir, is the clear truth.

For the majority of men evidence

is what they have always seen

from infancy, when adults

offered their simple minds

an explanation

for everything,

whilst in order to discover

the nature of things

with absolute certainty,

we have to free ourselves

from the vision of the world

we were given, handed down from

father to son down the centuries

and we must rid ourselves

of the tricks of sensations

and learn to use our reason better.

That is what I have to say.

And what vision of the world do you have

to offer us in exchange my dear sir,

seeing that you deny what is handed down to

us, the centuries of experience of the ancients.

A vision of the world

that proves to be evident,

such as the one that comes to

us from numbers, from mathematics.

So what you are claiming is

to replace the teachings

of philosophy and the sciences,

we have from such a long

tradition of learned men, with the

mathematical teaching of our times.

But reality is not made of quantity,

there are qualities in things

and these are picked

up through sensations,

those sensations you fear so much.

Permit me sir, to put you

on guard against your claims,

because you could risk losing your mind

in a dark forest of numbers.

My young friend is an able

and profound mathematician

and I hope you will

understand his perhaps

slightly excessive enthusiasm

for the clarity that

comes from numbers.

Yes, certainly sir.

I apologise for interrupting

you gentlemen.

Please continue your dissertation.

Gentlemen.

I do not know if in two years time

- in other words when

the twelve year truce ends -

the war against the

Spanish will continue.

In any case, the glorious army

of the United Provinces

of the Low Countries must by

that time have an artillery

still more powerful

than the Spanish knew

to their cost, before the truce.

This therefore is your

task for today's lesson.

You must calculate the firing

height of three canons,

and this in relation to the

height of the bastions defending

the city of Ostende to effect

a range that is as safe

and as powerful as possible.

Here are the distances of

the canons from the bastions.

The first is found at 1000 feet,

the second at 750

and the third at 5000.

In 1603 the conquest

of this port by our

troops cost a good four million Florins,

but it would certainly

have cost much, much more

if Prince Maurizio of Nassau

had not been able to count

on the best artillery in the world.

Firing height calculations

are fundamental for artillery

and this is why I recommend

more careful application

in studying this problem.

Good day gentlemen.

As usual, our friend D escartes

will do the calculations.

Will he really do them?

Here are your calculations, gentlemen.

But be certain that

when the war comes,

I will not be here to help you.

Don't worry the war is still

resting for the moment.

And prince Maurizio of Nassau

is only keeping an army armed

to sustain his political struggle

against Van Oldenbarneveldt.

They fought together against

the Spanish at the head of

the Federate Provinces for the

freedom of Holland and they now fight

against each other

like worst enemies.

Oldenbarneveldt is the more elderly,

and wise; he is he public's favourite.

Because he wants

Holland to be a Republic.

And above all he does not want Maurizio

of Nassau to become the King of Holland.

Do you think that Prince Maurizio will

use the army against Oldenbarneveldt?

He has no need.

Prince Maurizio has already

accused Oldenbarneveldt

of heresy for the support he gave

to a faction of Calvinists

and Armenians.

Even among the Calvinists, the

accusation of heresy can destroy a man

better than an entire army.

But if they condemn Oldenbarneveldt

his partisans will rise up.

Whatever happens, in one month

I will no longer be here.

In a month I'll be in Germany.

Duke Massimiliano of Baviera

is recruiting troops.

and certainly with the

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