ABSTRACT
Theophraste Renaudot was a French physician and philanthropist. Under the patronage of the Cardinal de Richelieu, chief minister of King Louis XIII, Renaudot organized a series of academic conferences between 1633 and 1642, during which the participants would discuss and debate questions pertaining to a variety of themes. The proceedings of 240 of these conferences were printed in French, with English translations appearing in 1664 and 1665. Below are the proceedings of two such conferences, one revolving around the nature of Love and the other about happiness and unhappiness. Wherefore if Love of Inclination presuppose goodness in the object, the same must be apprehended either by the Imagination or by some other Faculty, to which it must therefore be approximated either immediately by it self, or by it self. Imprisonment, one of the hardest trials of Patience, is nevertheless sought by some, who prefer Solitude and perpetual restraint, before the vanities of the world.
