Six metaphysical meditations

PREFACE.

TO THE READERS.

Had honor or applause and not the publick advantage of English Readers been the design of this Undertaking, the consideration of the common Fate of Translations had discouraged Me from permitting this even to have seen the light; for meer Versions do alwayes carry with them this Property, that if not well done they may much disgrace, but if well, not much commend the doers.

And certainly I might well have expected the same chance, had this been the Translation of an History, Play or Romance; wherein there is requisite not onely a bare version but a conformation of Idiom and language, manner and customary expression; But the nature of this present Work will not admit of the like liberty, and therefore, I hope, amongst Judicious Readers it may be exempt from the common Fate of Translations; for if we look upon it as a Philosophical or Metaphysical Tract, or rather as (really it is) a Physico-Mathematical Argumentation, we shall find that a great strictness of Expression is requisite to be observed therein. So that had a Translator taken upon him to use his own liberty of Phrase, he would thereby have endanger'd the sense and force of the Arguments; for Politeness of language might as well be expected in a Translation of ~Euclide~ as in this. And all that are acquainted with this famous Authors design, do very well know, that it was his intention in these Meditations ~Mathematically to demonstrate~, that there is a ~God~, and that mans ~mind~ is ~incorporeal~. And it was his opinion, that metaphysicks may as clearly be demonstrated as mathematicks, as witness his expression in the Dedicatory Epistle of this Work to the ~Sorbone~ Doctors, ~Eas~ (Rationes scilicet) ~quibus hic utor certitudine & evidentiâ Geometricas æquare, vel etiam superare existimem~; That he reputed his Arguments used in these Meditations, to equal if not excell Geometrical certainty.

And this, I suppose, is sufficient to make the Reader, not expect herein any smoothness of phrase or quaintness of Expression; what is here delivered in English is immediately taken, as it is naturally in the Original. The words, we hope, may be apposite enough, and fit to express what is here designed, and I think it a derogation from the Authors skill to draw the Picture of his mind in any other Colours, than what his own Copy expresses.

Thus far in vindication of the Philosophical plain stile and rough Language of the following Translation. I shall add a line or two, first relating to the Readers, secondly of the Author, and lastly of the Meditations themselves, together with the Motives which excited me to this Work.

As to the Readers, 'tis, I suppose, so evident that candour of mind, and freedome from prejudice is requisite to all that desire to advantage themselves by reading other mens notions, that it need not be here insisted on with much earnestness; yet considering the Antiquity of this subject, and the novelty of the Arguments here produced, it seems to be more than ordinarily requisite for an impartial perusal of the ensuing Tract. Neither are the following Meditations to be slightly passed over, but with diligence and attention to be read; for as in mathematical demonstration, the careless missing of any one single Position may render the Conclusion obscure and sometimes inconsequent, so in these metaphysical Demonstrations, which (as, before has been noted from the illustrious Author thereof) for certainty do equal, if not excel Geometrical Propositions, the slight attention to any one particular Argument may frustrate the design of the whole discourse.

The Reasoning therefore here being close and solid, and (as in Mathematicks) the knowledge of the latter depending on the knowledge of what went before, 'tis the duty of every Reader seriously to attend the Particulars, as also the connexion of the whole. Let him weigh the Arguments and perpend the Conclusions, and after a clear and distinct Knowledge, lett him pass his judgement.

And to this end I shall make it my request to every Reader, that he would not be content with a single perusal of the following Discourses, but that he would often repeat his reading them over; for by this means the force of those Arguments, which at first may by chance escape the most diligent and attentive Peruser, by a second or third Essay may offer themselves more fully to his Consideration. This was the desire of our Author in an other of his pieces, I mean his ~Principles of Philosophy~, which I am sure do not require so strict an attention of mind, as these abstracted speculations; and therefore if it were his Request in that case, we may Reasonably think that 'twas no less his desire in this.

When we come to speak of the Incomparable Author of these Meditations, we have reason to lament our own Ignorance, and to blame the Ingratitude of the Age wherein he lived, for not transmitting to Posterity more certain and ample Records of the Life and Conversation of this Excellent Philosopher, all that has been Written in this kind gives us only so much light into the Life of this Prodigious Man, as may make us wish for more; imparting which, I shall recommend the Readers to a further enquiry into the inward Thoughts, (largly discover'd in the Writings) of our Famous Author, of whose outward actions and condition we have so small knowledge.

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~.