SIX
METAPHYSICAL
MEDITATIONS;
Wherein it is Proved
That there is a
GOD.
And that Mans MIND isreally distinct from his BODY.
Written Originally in Latin
By RENATUS DES-CARTES.
Hereunto are added the OBJECTIONSmade against these Meditations
By THOMAS HOBBES
Of Malmesbury.
With the AUTHORS Answers.
All Faithfully Translated into ENGLISH,with a short Account of
Des-Cartes’s Life.
By WILLIAM MOLYNEUX.
London, Printed by B.G. for Benj. Tooke atthe Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1680.
Some Books sold by John Lawrence, at theAngel in Cornhill, near the Royal Exchange.
A Collection of Letters for the improvement ofHusbandry and Trade, intended to be continuedMonthly, by John Houghton, fellow of the Royal Society,’tis designed that every Letter shall be usefull to Mankind,and by degrees for most persons of both Sexes.
The Merchant Royal, (a very pleasant Sermon)Preached before the King at White-Hall, upon theNuptials of an Honourable Lord and his Lady, inQuarto, price 6d.
Humane Prudence, or the Art by which a man mayraise himself and Fortune to Granduer, by A. B., thesecond Edition, with the Addition of a Table; inTwelves, price Bound, 1s.
Had honor or applause and not thepublick advantage of English Readersbeen the design of this Undertaking,the consideration ofthe common Fate of Translations had discouragedMe from permitting this even tohave seen the light; for meer Versions do alwayescarry with them this Property, that ifnot well done they may much disgrace, but ifwell, not much commend the doers.
And certainly I might well have expectedthe same chance, had this been the Translationof an History, Play or Romance; whereinthere is requisite not onely a bare versionbut a conformation of Idiom and language,manner and customary expression; But thenature of this present Work will not admitof the like liberty, and therefore, I hope, amongstJudicious Readers it may be exemptfrom the common Fate of Translations; forif we look upon it as a Philosophical or MetaphysicalTract, or rather as (really it is) aPhysico-Mathematical Argumentation, weshall find that a great strictness of Expressionis requisite to be observed therein. So thathad a Translator taken upon him to use hisown liberty of Phrase, he would thereby have endanger’dthe sense and force of the Arguments;for Politeness of language might as well beexpected in a Translation of Euclide as inthis. And all that are acquainted with thisfamous Authors design, do very well know,that it was his intention in these MeditationsMathematically to demonstrate, that thereis a God, and that mans mind is incorporeal...