Page:A history of the theories of aether and electricity. Whittacker E.T. (1910).pdf/22

 The history of this problem may be traced back continuously to the earlier half of the seventeenth century. It first emerged clearly in that reconstruction of ideas regarding the physical universe which was effected by René Descartes.

Descartes was born in 1596, the son of Joachim Descartes, Counsellor to the Parliament of Brittany. As a young man he followed the profession of arms, and served in the campaigns of Maurice of Nassau, and the Emperor; but his twenty-fourth year brought a profound mental crisis, apparently not unlike those which have been recorded of many religious leaders; and he resolved to devote himself thenceforward to the study of philosophy.

The age which preceded the birth of Descartes, and that in which he lived, were marked by events which greatly altered the prevalent conceptions of the world. The discovery of America, the circumnavigation of the globe by Drake, the overthrow of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, and the invention of the telescope, all helped to loosen the old foundations and to make plain the need for a new structure. It was this that Descartes set himself to erect. His aim was the most ambitious that can be conceived; it was nothing less than to create from the beginning a complete system of human knowledge.

Of such a system the basis must necessarily be metaphysical; and this part of Descartes' work is that by which he is most widely known. But his efforts were also largely devoted to the mechanical explanation of nature, which indeed he regarded as one of the chief ends of Philosophy.

The general character of his writings may be illustrated by a comparison with those of his most celebrated contemporary. Bacon clearly defined the end to be sought for, and laid down the method by which it was to be attained; then, recognizing that to discover all the laws of nature is a task beyond the