ABSTRACT
In 1628, Descartes, by now a philosopher with a well developed sense of his mission in the world, returned to Holland and immediately renewed his friendship with Beeckman, who by that time had become the very respectable head of the Latin school in the city of Dordrecht, the oldest city of the province of Holland. But this time their friendship did not last very long. By October 1629 Descartes had, much to Beeckman’s surprise, broken all his ties with the Dutch schoolmaster. When Beeckman asked for an explanation in 1630, Descartes wrote him two very sharp and revealing letters in which he tried both to deny any influence exercised by Beeckman and to ridicule any claim to originality by Beeckman. Although some years later Descartes and Beeckman were on speaking terms again, their old affection never returned. After Beeckman’s death in May 1637 Descartes reacted rather coolly. Although on 14 June he wrote to Andreas Colvius, one of Beeckman’s best friends, about ‘the sad news
of Beeckman’s death’, in a letter to Mersenne less than two weeks earlier he had still counted Beeckman among the men ‘who try to acquire some reputation without deserving it’.1
