Aspiring to begin ab integro and reform the foundations of knowledge, he ignored or made little of what had been achieved in the past.

He attempted to cut the threads of continuity as with the shears of Atropos.

This illusion [Footnote: He may be reproached himself with scholasticism in his metaphysical reasoning.] hindered him from stating a doctrine of the progress of knowledge as otherwise he might have done.

For any such doctrine must take account of the past as well as of the future.
But a theory of progress was to grow out of his philosophy, though he did not construct it.

It was to be developed by men who were imbued with the Cartesian spirit.
3.
The theological world in France was at first divided on the question whether the system of Descartes could be reconciled with orthodoxy or not.