easy,
which geometers use to arrive at their most difficult demonstrations,
suggested to me that all things which came within human knowledge must
follow each other in a similar chain; and that provided we abstain from
admitting anything as true which is not so, and that we always preserve
in them the order necessary to deduce one from the other, there can be
none so remote to which we cannot finally attain, nor so obscure but
that we may discover them." From these glimpses of the twofold nature of
Descartes' method, it will be easy to see into his whole system:
consciousness being the only ground of certitude, mathematics the only
method of certitude.

We may say therefore that the deductive method was now completely
constituted. The whole operation of philosophy henceforth consisted in
deducing consequences. The premises had been found; the conclusions
alone were wanting. This was held to be true of physics no less than of
psychology. Thus, in his _Principia_, he announces his intention of
giving a short account of the principal phenomena of the world, not that
we may use them as reasons to prove anything; for he adds: "we desire to
deduce effects from causes, not from effects; but only in order that out
of the innumerable effects which we learn to be capable of resulting
from the same causes, we may determine our minds to consider these
rather than others."

SIEGE OF LA ROCHELLE

RICHELIEU RULES FRANCE

A.D. 1627

ANDREW D. WHITE

Through the work which Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister of
Louis XIII, performed for that monarch and for France, the
country was lifted from a state of comparative disorganization
and weakness, and started on a fresh career, which led her to
the foremost position among European nations.

At the death of Henry IV, in 1610, his son Louis XIII was but
nine years old, and from 1624 to the end of the reign, in 1643,
Richelieu directed the policy of France. By crushing the
Huguenots as a political party he prepared the way for building
up the power of the King. The Huguenots were aiming at an
independent Protestant commonwealth within the kingdom. When
Richelieu had defeated this project by his victory at La
Rochelle he was free to undertake a readjustment of the
relations between the throne and the grasping nobles. After
accomplishing this he could turn his attention to foreign
affairs.

In