G. Lyon, La Philosophie de Hobbes, Ch. II, p

4. Descartes à Mersenne, Leyde, 21 janvier 1641, T. III, p. 283, 1. 19.

5. « ... As regards the subject-matter of Meditationcs, the thinking of the two philo- v' sophers moved in such différent worlds that mutual understanding was almost impossible. To Descartes, mind was the primai certainty and independent of material reality. Hobbes, on the other hand, had already fixed on motion as the fundamental fact, and his originality consisted in his attempt to use it for the explanation not of nature only but, also, of mind and society. » (W. R. Sorley, Hobbes and contemporary Philosophy, dans The Cambridge History of English Literature, T. VII, Ch. XII, p. 285-286, Cambridge, 1911).

6. Il est remarquable en effet que Descartes et Hobbes ne communiquèrent entre eux qu'en passant par Mersenne. Dans la Correspondance de Descartes, on ne trouve de lui aucune lettre adressée directement à Hobbes. Là réciproque est également

vraie.