Jefferson referred to the theories of Descartes in his discussion on Church and State in the Notes on the State of Virginia , Query XVII: . . . Government is just as infallible too when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere: the government had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error. This error however at length prevailed, the earth became a globe, and Descartes declared it was whirled round its axis by a vortex. The government in which he lived was wise enough to see that this was no question of civil jurisdiction, or we should all have been involved by authority in vortices. In fact the vortices have been exploded, and the Newtonian principle of gravitation is now more firmly established, on the basis of reason, than it would be were the government to step in and to make it an article of necessary faith . . .

René Descartes, 1596-1650, French philosopher. The first edition of this work was printed by Elzevir in 1644. A number of books have been written not only in explanation of the Cartesian philosophy, but also in comparison of the philosophies of Descartes and of Sir Isaac Newton.