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Introduction

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--Amplification

Arcs

Endnotes

--Somnio

Ergo

Sum

"After he fell asleep, his imagination felt itself struck by the representation of some ghosts who presented themselves to him and who so frightened him that, thinking that he was walking down the streets, he had to lean to his left side in order to be able to reach the place where he wanted to go, because he felt a great weakness on his right side, so that he could not hold himself upright. Because he was ashamed to walk in this way, he tried to straighten up, but he was buffeted by gusts that carried him off in a sort of whirlwind that spun him around three or four times on his left foot.

"Even this was not what alarmed him. His difficulty in dragging himself along meant that he thought he would fall at each step until, noticing a school open along his way, he entered in search of a refuge and a remedy for his trouble. He tried to reach the school church, where his first thought was to say his prayers. However, having noticed that he had passed an acquaintance without greeting him, he wanted to retrace his steps to pay his respects, and he was thrust back by the wind that was blowing against the church.

"At the same time he saw another person in the middle of the school courtyard who addressed him by name in kind and polite terms and told him that, if he wanted to go to find Monsieur N., he had something to give him. Monsieur Descartes imagined that it was a melon from a foreign land. What surprised him more was to see that those who clustered around that person in order to talk with him were upright and steady on their feet, although he was still bent over and unsteady on the same ground. Having almost knocked him down many times, the wind had greatly abated.

"He woke up imagining this and then felt a real pain, which made him fear that it had been the work of some Evil Spirit who had wanted to seduce him. Immediately, he turned over onto his right side, for he had slept and dreamed on the left side. He prayed that God would protect him from the evil effects of his dream and preserve him from all of the miseries that could threaten him as punishment for his sins, which he acknowledged to be great enough to call down upon his head thunderbolts of heaven, although he had led a more or less blameless life in the eyes of men.

"In this situation he fell asleep after an interval of almost two hours of various thoughts on good and evil in this life. Immediately, a new dream came to him in which he thought that he heard a sudden, loud noise, which he took for thunder. Terrified, he awoke at once. Having opened his eyes, he noticed many sparks of fire scattered around the room. He had experienced this phenomenon on many other occasions, and it did not seem too strange to him, when he awoke in the middle of the night, that his eyes sparkled enough that he could make out the objects closest to him.

"But, on this last occasion, he wanted to find reasons drawn from Philosophy, and he was able to reassure himself about his mind/spirit. After having opened and closed his eyes in turn and observed what was represented to him, he saw that his terrors faded away, and he fell asleep again quite calmly."