a
period of eight years, and his seclusion was so effectual during that
time, that his place of residence was unknown to his friends. He there
prepared the "Meditations," and "Discourse on Method," which have since
caused so much pen-and-ink warfare amongst those who have aspired to
be ranked as philosophical thinkers. He became European in fame; and,
invited by Christina of Sweden, he visited her kingdom, but the rudeness
of the climate proved too much for his delicate frame, and he died
at Stockholm in the year 1650, from inflammation of the lungs, being
fifty-four years of age at the time of his death.

Des Cartes was perhaps the most original thinker that France had up
to that date produced; and, contemporary with Bacon, he exercised a
powerful influence or the progress of thought in Europe; but although a
great thinker, he was not a brave man, and the fear of giving offence
to the church and government, has certainly prevented him from making
public some of his writings, and perhaps has toned down some of these
thoughts which, when first uttered, took a higher flight, and struck
full home to the truth itself.

The father and founder of the deductive method, Des Cartes still proudly
reigns to the present day, although some of his conclusions have
been over-turned, and others of his thinkings have been carried to
conclusions which he never dared to dream of. He gave a strong aid to
the tendency of advancing civilization, to separate philosophy from
theology, thereby striking a blow, slow in its effect, and effectual in
its destructive operation, on all priestcraft. In his dedication ol the
"Meditations," he says,--"I have always thought that the two questions
of the existence of God and the nature of the soul, were the chief
of those which ought to be demonstrated rather by philosophy than by
theology; for although it is sufficient for us, the faithful, to believe
in God, and that the soul does not perish with the body, it does not
seem possible ever to persuade the Infidels to any religion, unless we
first prove to them these two things by natural reason."

Having relinquished faith, he found that he must choose an entirely new
faith in which to march with reason; the old ways were so cumbered with
priests and Bibles, that progression would have been impossible. This
gave us his method. He wanted a starting point from which to reason,
some indisputable fact upon which to found future thinkings.

"He has given u