Descartes His Life And Times

where the husband of his godmother, who had charge of the commissariat of the troops, had died. Being anxious to depart, he made it a pretext for his journey that he was going to set the affairs of his relative in order, and, if possible, obtain the post of Intendant of the army. All preparations were made, and he was to leave by postchaise, having assured his friends that a voyage of the kind would be of the greatest use in teaching him the management of affairs, giving him further experience of the world, and helping him to form useful habits, adding that "if he did not return richer, at least he would return more capable." However, either owing to his anxiety to sell his property, or for some other reasons unexplained, he had to delay his journey. It was thus September 1623 when he really started and made his way to Basle and Switzerland, in order to see something of the country. On this journey, the traveller made a point of seeing as much of nature as he could, paying special attention to animal life, and to the conformation of the land: and this was at a time when such regions of inquiry were unusual. Hedirected his way to the Grisons, and there became detained while the question of the Valtelline was under debate. The Spaniards, who garrisoned the Milanese, had, in 1622, seized upon the valley of the Valtelline, and obliged Chur, the chief town of the League of the Grisons, to receive an imperial garrison, on the pretext that they wished to protect the C...