Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body — Descartes — John Shaqi
Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body
Descartes · en
_Renatus Des-Cartes was born on the last day of ~March~ in the year 1596.
at ~Tours~, or at ~Castrum Eraldum~ a Town near ~Tours~ in ~France~;
He came of an Antient and Noble Family, being by Descent ~Lord~ of
~Perron~, His Father was a Senator of his Country, and a Man of no mean
estate, leaving to this his only Son by a second Wife between six and
seven thousand pounds a year._
_He was Educated in his younger years according to the manner of his
Country (and as he himself recommends in one of his Epistles, ~viz.
Epist. 90. partis secundæ~ to One for the Instruction of his Son) in the
Aristotelian principles of Philosophy, a whole course whereof he had
run through at the Age of seventeen in the Schools of ~Flexia~, or ~La
Flesche~ a Town in the Province of ~Anjou~, famous for the Colledge of
Jesuites there establish’d by ~Henry~ the ~4th~._
_But to this he did not Continue long devoted, giving early testimonies
of his dislike to the unsatisfactory Notions, and verbose emptiness of
the Peripatetick Philosophy; He used therefore his utmost endeavours (as
he himself testifies in his ~Dissertatio de Methodo~) to get loose from
those Chains and Fetters of Mind to which the weakness of his tender
years had subjected him._
_To this end he betook himself to a long course of Travel, that by the
variety of Objects, which he was likely to meet with in his journeys,
the memory of his past Notions might be blotted out; In his travel he
applied himself much to the study of the Art Military, and Mathematicks;
In the latter he has left the World large testimonies of his Excellence
in his ~Book of Geometry~; and in the former we have reason to believe
him most expert, for He was personally present at some Sieges and Battles
both in ~France~ and ~Germany~, as particularly at the Siege of ~Rochel~,
of ~Gava~ near ~Genoa~, of ~Breda~, at the Battle of ~Prague~, ~&c.~ so
that we may conclude that he had a Genius fitted (according to the Motto
of the noble ~Sir W. Raliegh~) ~Tam Marti, quam Mercurio~, For the Pike
as well as Pen. And as the Glorious Roman Emperour became a ~Cæsar~ by
his Book as well as Sword, by the Conquests of his mind as well as those
of his arm; so our Famous Author was ~Ex Utroque Clarus~._