Cartesius Page #8

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by proceeding from the objects that

are the simplest and easiest to know,

and by gradually progressing

to the more difficult ones.

After we have intuited a certain

number of simple arrangements

we pass on to reflecting on

their reciprocal relationships

if clear and distinct

concepts result from them,

with a continuous movement of thought.

In this methodical search for

the truth, we use the intellect,

imagination, the senses

and the memory,

both to distinctly sense

the simple prepositions,

and to correctly compare the researched

things with ones already known.

I believe that all the things

that may be within the reach

of the knowledge of man follow

each other in the same way

as the long chains of simple

and easy reasoning

geometricians usually use

to reach their most

difficult demonstrations.

This, sirs, is some of the reasoning

by which I sustain the twenty one rules

that I have established for

the correct use of the human mind

Excuse me sir,

as you were talking,

I felt a great desire

to read your reasoning.

Tell me when you are

going to publish it.

I cannot tell you when

I'll publish it sirs,

those who know me, know well that

I am like a pilgrim , I love

travelling in my thoughts

just as I love travelling

across Europe

with the purpose of

observing men and things,

to be able to better discover

the infinite faces of the truth

and those of error.

Sir.

Yes, my dear Bretagne,

what's going on this morning?

An excellent day, sir.

I see that you consumed

many candles last night,

did you work late?

Sir, sir, it's almost midday.

Midday?

Yes, and there's already someone who's

been waiting for you for more than an hour.

Oh, send him away.

He's certainly a barbarian if he

comes to tire me at this time of day.

He's a merchant, he comes from Paris.

He says he has a letter for you from Father

Mersenne, do you want me to send him away?

Don't talk nonsense.

Go, tell him I 'm getting dressed

and will receive him straightaway.

Ah, tell the kitchen to

prepare lunch for two.

- Yes.

- And tell the kitchen I want it rich and succulent.

Very good sir.

He must be a really important

guest if your boss

ordered buying the most

expensive fruit in the market.

This way.

Come.

Do I really have to tell our

Paris friends, that for the moment

you have no intention

of returning to France?

Absolutely.

It's really incredible that

you prefer to live in this city

of merchants and sailors,

instead of at Paris, which

is the city of learned men.

Since I established myself here

at Dordrecht, I haven't desired

to return to Paris even once

and to tell you the truth,

I prefer this retreat.

I prefer it, not only for the

silence of the convents

of the Carthusians and

of the hermitages,

but also to the privacy of

certain towns of France and Italy

to which one normally takes

refuge in order to study in peace.

I n the towns many of the

comforts are always missing

that are found in cities like these.

But Paris is a great city.

But I'm too well known ,

here instead there

is no one, me excepted

who does not perform trade

and everyone is so taken up

by his own interests that

I could stay here all my life

without ever being disturbed by a sole.

There is a school of Latin

letters and in this school,

apart from my only friend Beeckman,

there is no one else

that I know of interested in the

things that concern my mind.

I walk every morning in the

middle of the confusion

of a great people with the

same freedom and peace

that you can find in a country town,

and I look at the men I meet

as I would look at trees

and animals in a forest.

The noise of their traffic

does not succeed in interrupting

my fantasising any more than

the babbling of a brook would.

And you who travel,

can you tell me

any other country

in the world in which you

can you en joy such complete

liberty as in Holland.

But the climate?

The winter here is very hard,

the humidity of the fog

corrodes your bones.

It's enough to have

a good stove,

and not to leave home

if the weather's bad.

Ah, ah, ah, you are

an unbeatable hardhead.

In two weeks you could pass

by to collect my reply

to Father Mersenne's letter

you brought to me,

I hoped you would give it

to me straightaway.

No, the reply to Father Mersenne

requires much reflection

and I cannot interrupt

a new difficult study

I am performing on optics right now.

I will only return to Dordrecht at the

end of my journey, in thirty days time.

I'll leave the folder for

you with the tavern owner,

as in a month I will

no longer be here.

And where will you be?

I still don't know yet.

I on the other hand am persuaded

that you know very well,

but don't want to tell me.

It is said that when you

write to friends in Paris,

you mysteriously date your letters,

not from the place where you living,

but from other places,

Amsterdam, Leida or any way

places in which it is certain

you are not to be found in.

It is very difficult to find fruit

as good as this in Paris,

here in Holland, an infinite amount

arrives from the West Indies.

Are you certain it doesn't

harm the intestines?

Absolutely, it is much less indigestible

than the discourses of certain doctors.

Ah, ah, ah, ah.

I thank you , I thank you infinitely

for sparing me from

your point of view hyperbole,

but at the same time, I regret

that you also came to tell me

that you have decided to leave again.

You are as fidgety as no

other man I have ever known,

tell me at least where you're going.

I'm going to Franeker.

So I'll lose you once again.

Ten years ago, when you

left Breda, you promised me

that you wouldn't ever

have left me without your news,

but instead you've been

quiet for ten years.

And I waited in vain for your

texts on mechanics and those

about algebra, and I'm still waiting

because you haven't written them.

You're right to chide me.

Your mind was created

suitable for mathematics

and I think you're doing

a bad thing wasting your time

and talents in disciplines

that don't suit you.

My mind is attracted by mathematics,

I've repeated that to

you many times, I think,

only because it is executed,

in my opinion , with procedures

capable of demonstrating

metaphysical truths,

with greater evidence than

that usually reached

using philosophical demonstrations.

It is precisely your certainty

that seems excessive to me.

You think it possible to

apply it to metaphysics...

It is possible. Have you read

what I demonstrated in this sheet?

The rays, as you see, hit the

lens in a parallel position,

the lens deviates them

and they converge

perfectly at one point.

Everything appears clear,

simple, evident.

And you would claim to

bring the same clarity

and simplicity in

philosophical demonstrations

using only mathematical procedures?

My dear friend, perhaps you

are losing sight of the fact

that philosophy does not only

consider what material

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