_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~._ _In his Travels he spent many years, in all which time he was not Idle, but highly improved himself by his converse with the ~Beaux Esprits~, which he met with in several Regions he visited; The first Place he betook himself to, was ~Italy~, then he went into ~Denmark, Germany, Hungary, &c.~ And after a Long but advantagious Peregrination he return’d to ~Amsterdam~, where he intended to take up his Rest, had he not been called by the French King upon very Honourable terms to ~Paris~; During his Continuance there he so order’d his annual Revenue, that he might be supplied by the hands of a Friend wherever he was. He staid at ~Paris~ three years, and then retired Himself to a solitary village in ~Holland~ called ~Egmond~, where he lived twenty five years, during which time he apply’d himself wholly to the Restauration of true Philosophy, wherein he gave the World such mighty testimonies of his Excellence, that in a short time he became celebrated in the mouths of all Learned Men. Neither were the Courts of Princes silent in his deserved Praises; for after a Retirement of twenty five years he was Invited...