The General Preface.

...superstition, which I have understood only through reasoning, having had no personal experience of it to sharpen my style or expand my thoughts on the matter. But I believe I may safely affirm, as I have elsewhere, that it is superstition (if it is not vanity, self-interest, or something worse) when men have an excessive zeal for or against religious matters that God places little or no value upon, whether they are performed or omitted. If this were seriously and conscientiously considered, it would go a long way toward calming or preventing the usual storms original: "blusters" of Christendom. And there could be no better result from writing an entire volume. But I must confess that the success and growth of the Church is a secret original: "Arcanum" that lies deeper in Divine Providence. It is a mystery of spiritual life rather than of external reason. Paul may plant and Apollos may water, but God gives the growth original: "increase"; a reference to 1 Corinthians 3:6.

It should not offend knowledgeable and honorable people that men are cautious and suspicious of truths they are not acquainted with.

10. As for the letters that follow next, they explain their own purpose. I have added the letter to V.C. likely an abbreviation for Vir Clarissimus, a Latin honorific meaning "Most Distinguished Man," often used in scholarly correspondence for several reasons, but chiefly to encourage a better opinion of Descartes and his writings among those who are not well-acquainted with them. It is inevitable that men of excellent spirit may struggle with prejudice against such a worthy author because of misrepresentations. I must confess that the mere novelty of his work is enough to make even truly honorable men hesitate; that which is strange often seems hostile. This is why the Latin words for "enemy" original: "Hostis" and "foreigner" original: "Peregrinus" once had the same meaning, as Cicero observes. It is a sign of rudeness and lack of skill in understanding the nature of things and the perfection of Divine Providence to think that just because a truth is logically self-evident, its opposite will immediately surrender. God has generally implanted in us a stubborn loyalty to what we have customarily received, so that the human mind might be a safer container original: "Receptacle" when it finally encounters what is best. Considering this, honorable people must maintain sincere civility and respect even toward those who suspiciously doubt or oppose new truths. Indeed, it would be a mark of surprising ignorance or inhumanity to feel otherwise toward them.

Certain remarkable things concerning Descartes and his writings.

Letters of Mr. Descartes. Volume 2. Letters 75, 76, 80.

11. Nothing specific comes to mind to note regarding that letter, except perhaps to applaud the luckiness of my guess concerning Descartes's distortion of the true and natural idea of motion. He did this because of Galileo's misfortune; Galileo was treated very harshly for his hypothesis of the motion of the Earth by a Council of Cardinals. It is now very evident from several of his letters to Mersenne original: "Marsennus" that Descartes had this event in mind. I did not know about these passages until a few days ago, and my own letter was written before this second volume of Descartes's letters was published. In the meantime, I cannot help but notice the harm this external force and fear does to the community of scholars original: "Commonwealth of Learning". Many innocent and deserving young minds have been "put upon the rack," just as Galileo was put into prison. For Galileo's imprisonment frightened Descartes into such a distorted description of motion that no man's reason could make sense of it, nor could modesty allow anyone to imagine that such an excellent author was simply writing nonsense.

My main goal in my letter was to clear Descartes original: "Cartesius" from the dizzying and groundless suspicion of atheism (which surely could only be believed by those with unrefined and common minds). I believe I have done this fully, and...