Philosophical Works

when they were rounded, and is moved with so much velocity that the force alone of its agitation is sufficient to cause it, in its contact with other bodies, to be broken and divided by them into an infinity of small particles that are of such a figure as always exactly to fill all the holes and small interstices which they find around these bodies. The other is, that of all the rest of the matter whose particles are spherical and very small in comparison of the bodies we see on the earth, but nevertheless possess some determinate quantity, so that they can be divided into others much smaller: and we will still find in addition a third form in some parts of matter, to wit, in those which, on account of their size and figure, can not be so easily moved as the preceding; and I will endeavour to show that all the bodies of the visible world are composed of these three forms, which are found in matter, as of three diverse elements, to wit, that the sun and the fixed stars have the form of the first of these elements, the heavens that of the second, and the earth with the planets and comets that of the third. For since the sun and the fixed stars emit light, since the heavens transmit it, and since the earth, the planets, and comets reflect it, it appears to me I have ground for these three differences [luminousness, transparency, and opacity or obscurity, which are the chief we can relate to the sense of sight], in order to distinguish the three elements of the visible world.”⁠—Prin. of Phil. part III, § 52. Con. Chauvin, Lex. Rat., Art. Elementum. ↩

In the French this section begins, “Finally, sight is the most subtle of all the senses,” etc. ↩

“The diverse figures, situations, magnitudes, and motions of their parts.”

—⁠French

↩

“That of Aristotle or the Others.”

—⁠French

↩

“Have for their end only to apply certain sensible bodies to each other in such a way that, in the course of natural causes, certain sensible effects may be produced; and we will be able to accomplish this quite as well by considering the series of certain causes thus imagined, although false, as if they were the true, since this series is supposed similar as far as regards sensible effects.”

—⁠French

↩

Ἐπεὶ δὲ περὶ τῶν ἀφανῶν τῇ αἰσθήσει νομίζομεν ἱκανῶς ἀποδεδεῖχθαι κατὰ τὸν λόγον, ἐὰν εἰς τὸ δυνατὸν ἀναγάγωμεν, ἔκ τε τῶν νῦν φαινομένων ὑπολάβοι τις ἂν ὧδε περὶ τούτων μάλιστα συμβαίνειν. Μετεωρ. α. 7.

—⁠Tr.

↩

Colophon

Philosophical Works
was compiled from works published between 1637 and 1644 by
René Descartes.
They were translated from Latin and French between 1850 and 1853 by
John Veitch.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
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Erin Endrei,
and is based on transcriptions from
various sources
and on digital scans from the
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The cover page is adapted from
Portrait of René Descartes,
a painting completed circa 1655 by
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