The Collected Works of Descartes, Volume 1: Correspondence

the latter, by interspersing among them a letter to Descartes, dated April 25, 1631, which was printed as early as 1636 in the Second Part of the Letters of Mr. de Balzac Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597–1654) was a famous French author known for reforming French prose; his letters were widely read as models of style., and reprinted in 1637, 1641, etc. For the first, there was also a response, dated March 30, 1628, and printed in 1657, 1664, etc., in private editions of the Christian Socrates by the Lord of Balzac original: "Socrate chrestien par le Sr de Balzac" and other works by the same Author. Finally, another letter from Descartes to Balzac—or rather a copy of a letter—dated June 14, 1637, was discovered among the papers of Conrart Valentin Conrart (1603–1675), the first secretary of the Académie Française. at the Arsenal Library. However, in 1691, Baillet, regarding Descartes’s letters to Balzac, would place this note in the margin of volume I, page 401: “they are mostly lost.”

Meanwhile, Clerselier had written from Paris on December 12, 1654, specifically “to Mr. More, an English gentleman” original: "Henricus Morus"; Henry More (1614–1687) was a prominent Cambridge Platonist philosopher., and the latter had replied from Cambridge on May 14, 1655. These two letters, LXIV and LXV, undoubtedly provided us with the dates for those that follow: LXVI and LXVII, December 11, 1648, and February 5, 1649; LXVIII and LXIX, March 5 and April 15 (LXX is undated); and LXXI, October 21. Finally, LXXII is merely a draft of a letter, also undated. But More had altered something in his letters before sending them to Clerselier; they are, therefore, no longer exactly what Descartes had received. This was the risk one faced when addressing the philosopher's correspondents after the fact: would they always provide the faithful text of what they had written? On the other hand, possessing Descartes's original drafts original: "minutes"; the retained copies or rough drafts kept by the author. gave Clerselier an advantage: he found there, for instance, letter LXXII, which was a final reply that had never actually been sent.

But since Clerselier was writing to England, why did he not inquire after that nobleman to whom Descartes had addressed at least three letters, LII, LIII, and LIV? This was the Marquis of Newcastle William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle (1592–1676), a Royalist commander and polymath., the brother of another of Descartes’s correspondents, Charles Cavendish; and while the latter had died in 1652, his elder brother lived until 1676.