I was then in Germany, attracted
thither by the wars in that country,
which have not yet been brought
to a termination; and as I was
returning to the army from the
coronation of the emperor, the
setting in of winter arrested
me in a locality where, as I
found no society to interest
me, and was besides fortunately
undisturbed by any cares or passions,
I remained the whole day in seclusion,
with full opportunity to occupy
my attention with my own thoughts.
Of these one of the very first
that occurred to me was, that
there is seldom so much perfection
in works composed of many separate
parts, upon which different hands
had been employed, as in those
completed by a single master.
Thus it is observable that the
buildings which a single architect
has planned and executed, are
generally more elegant and commodious
than those which several have
attempted to improve, by making
old walls serve for purposes
for which they were not originally
built. Thus also, those ancient
cities which, from being at first
only villages, have become, in
course of time, large towns,
are usually but ill laid out
compared with the regularity
constructed towns which a professional
architect has freely planned
on an open plain; so that although
the several buildings of the
former may often equal or surpass
in beauty those of the latter,
yet when one observes their indiscriminate
juxtaposition, there a large
one and here a small, and the
consequent crookedness and irregularity
of the streets, one is disposed
to allege that chance rather
than any human will guided by
reason must have led to such
an arrangement. And if we consider
that nevertheless there have
been at all times certain officers
whose duty it was to see that
private buildings contributed
to public ornament, the difficulty
of reaching high perfection with
but the materials of others to
operate on, will be readily acknowledged.
In the same way I fancied that
those nations which, starting
from a semi-barbarous state and
advancing to civilization by
slow degrees, have had their
laws successively determined,
and, as it were, forced upon
them simply by experience of
the hurtfulness of particular
crimes and disputes, would by
this process come to be possessed
of less perfect institutions
than those which, from the commencement
of their association as communities,
have followed the appointments
of some wise legislator. It is
thus quite certain that the constitution
of the true religion, the ordinances
of which are derived from God,
must be incomparably superior
to that of every other. And,
to speak of human affairs, I
believe that the pre-eminence
of Sparta was due not to the
goodness of each of its laws
in particular, for many of these
were very strange, and even opposed
to good morals, but to the circumstance
that, originated by a single
individual, they all tended to
a single end. In the same way
I thought that the sciences contained
in books (such of them at least
as are made up of probable reasonings,
without demonstrations), composed
as they are of the opinions of
many different individuals massed
together, are farther removed
from truth than the simple inferences
which a man of good sense using
his natural and unprejudiced
judgment draws respecting the
matters of his experience. And
because we have all to pass through
a state of infancy to manhood,
and have been of necessity, for
a length of time, governed by
our desires and preceptors (whose
dictates were frequently conflicting,
while neither perhaps always
counseled us for the best), I
farther concluded that it is
almost impossible that our judgments
can be so correct or solid as
they would have been, had our
reason been mature from the moment
of our birth, and had we always
been guided by it alone.
It is true, however, that it
is not customary to pull down
all the houses of a town with
the single design of rebuilding
them differently, and thereby
rendering the streets more handsome;
but it often happens that a private
individual takes down his own
with the view of erecting it
anew, and that people are even
sometimes constrained to this
when their houses are in danger
of falling from age, or when
the foundations are insecure.
With this before me by way of
example, I was persuaded that
it would indeed be preposterous
for a private individual to think
of reforming a state by fundamentally
changing it throughout, and overturning
it in order to set it up amended;
and the same I thought was true
of any similar project for reforming
the body of the sciences, or
the order of teaching them established
in the schools: but as for the
opinions which up to that time
I had embraced, I thought that
I could not do better than resolve
at once to sweep them wholly
away, that I might afterwards
be in a position to admit either
others more correct, or even
perhaps the same when they had
undergone the scrutiny of reason.
I firmly believed that in this
way I should much better succeed
in the conduct of my life, than
if I built only upon old foundations,
and leaned upon principles which,
in my youth, I had taken upon
trust. For although I recognized
various difficulties in this
undertaking, these were not,
however, without remedy, nor
once to be compared with such
as attend the slightest reformation
in public affairs. Large bodies,
if once overthrown, are with
great difficulty set up again,
or even kept erect when once
seriously shaken, and the fall
of such is always disastrous.
Then if there are any imperfections
in the constitutions of states
(and that many such exist the
diversity of constitutions is
alone sufficient to assure us),
custom has without doubt materially
smoothed their inconveniences,
and has even managed to steer
altogether clear of, or insensibly
corrected a number which sagacity
could not have provided against
with equal effect; and, in fine,
the defects are almost always
more tolerable than the change
necessary for their removal;
in the same manner that highways
which wind among mountains, by
being much frequented, become
gradually so smooth and commodious,
that it is much better to follow
them than to seek a straighter
path by climbing over the tops
of rocks and descending to the
bottoms of precipices.
Hence it is that I cannot in
any degree approve of those restless
and busy meddlers who, called
neither by birth nor fortune
to take part in the management
of public affairs, are yet always
projecting reforms; and if I
thought that this tract contained
aught which might justify the
suspicion that I was a victim
of such folly, I would by no
means permit its publication.
I have never contemplated anything
higher than the reformation of
my own opinions, and basing them
on a foundation wholly my own.
And although my own satisfaction
with my work has led me to present
here a draft of it, I do not
by any means therefore recommend
to every one else to make a similar
attempt. Those whom God has endowed
with a larger measure of genius
will entertain, perhaps, designs
still more exalted; but for the
many I am much afraid lest even
the present undertaking be more
than they can safely venture
to imitate. The single design
to strip one's self of all past
beliefs is one that ought not
to be taken by every one. The
majority of men is composed of
two classes, for neither of which
would this be at all a befitting
resolution: in the first place,
of those who with more than a
due confidence in their own powers,
are precipitate in their judgments
and want the patience requisite
for orderly and circumspect thinking;
whence it happens, that if men
of this class once take the liberty
to doubt of their accustomed
opinions, and quit the beaten
highway, they will never be able
to thread the byway that would
lead them by a shorter course,
and will lose themselves and
continue to wander for life;
in the second place, of those
who, possessed of sufficient
sense or modesty to determine
that there are others who excel
them in the power of discriminating
between truth and error, and
by whom they may be instructed,
ought rather to content themselves
with the opinions of such than
trust for more correct to their
own reason.
For my own part, I should doubtless
have belonged to the latter class,
had I received instruction from
but one master, or had I never
known the diversities of opinion
that from time immemorial have
prevailed among men of the greatest
learning. But I had become aware,
even so early as during my college
life, that no opinion, however
absurd and incredible, can be
imagined, which has not been
maintained by some on of the
philosophers; and afterwards
in the course of my travels I
remarked that all those whose
opinions are decidedly repugnant
to ours are not in that account
barbarians and savages, but on
the contrary that many of these
nations make an equally good,
if not better, use of their reason
than we do. I took into account
also the very different character
which a person brought up from
infancy in France or Germany
exhibits, from that which, with
the same mind originally, this
individual would have possessed
had he lived always among the
Chinese or with savages, and
the circumstance that in dress
itself the fashion which pleased
us ten years ago, and which may
again, perhaps, be received into
favor before ten years have gone,
appears to us at this moment
extravagant and ridiculous. I
was thus led to infer that the
ground of our opinions is far
more custom and example than
any certain knowledge. And, finally,
although such be the ground of
our opinions, I remarked that
a plurality of suffrages is no
guarantee of truth where it is
at all of difficult discovery,
as in such cases it is much more
likely that it will be found
by one than by many. I could,
however, select from the crowd
no one whose opinions seemed
worthy of preference, and thus
I found myself constrained, as
it were, to use my own reason
in the conduct of my life.
But like one walking alone
and in the dark, I resolved to
proceed so slowly and with such
circumspection, that if I did
not advance far, I would at least
guard against falling. I did
not even choose to dismiss summarily
any of the opinions that had
crept into my belief without
having been introduced by reason,
but first of all took sufficient
time carefully to satisfy myself
of the general nature of the
task I was setting myself, and
ascertain the true method by
which to arrive at the knowledge
of whatever lay within the compass
of my powers.
Among the branches of philosophy,
I had, at an earlier period,
given some attention to logic,
and among those of the mathematics
to geometrical analysis and algebra,
-- three arts or sciences which
ought, as I conceived, to contribute
something to my design. But,
on examination, I found that,
as for logic, its syllogisms
and the majority of its other
precepts are of avail- rather
in the communication of what
we already know, or even as the
art of Lully, in speaking without
judgment of things of which we
are ignorant, than in the investigation
of the unknown; and although
this science contains indeed
a number of correct and very
excellent precepts, there are,
nevertheless, so many others,
and these either injurious or
superfluous, mingled with the
former, that it is almost quite
as difficult to effect a severance
of the true from the false as
it is to extract a Diana or a
Minerva from a rough block of
marble. Then as to the analysis
of the ancients and the algebra
of the moderns, besides that
they embrace only matters highly
abstract, and, to appearance,
of no use, the former is so exclusively
restricted to the consideration
of figures, that it can exercise
the understanding only on condition
of greatly fatiguing the imagination;
and, in the latter, there is
so complete a subjection to certain
rules and formulas, that there
results an art full of confusion
and obscurity calculated to embarrass,
instead of a science fitted to
cultivate the mind. By these
considerations I was induced
to seek some other method which
would comprise the advantages
of the three and be exempt from
their defects. And as a multitude
of laws often only hampers justice,
so that a state is best governed
when, with few laws, these are
rigidly administered; in like
manner, instead of the great
number of precepts of which logic
is composed, I believed that
the four following would prove
perfectly sufficient for me,
provided I took the firm and
unwavering resolution never in
a single instance to fail in
observing them.
The first was never to accept
anything for true which I did
not clearly know to be such;
that is to say, carefully to
avoid precipitancy and prejudice,
and to comprise nothing more
in my judgement than what was
presented to my mind so clearly
and distinctly as to exclude
all ground of doubt.
The second, to divide each
of the difficulties under examination
into as many parts as possible,
and as might be necessary for
its adequate solution.
The third, to conduct my thoughts
in such order that, by commencing
with objects the simplest and
easiest to know, I might ascend
by little and little, and, as
it were, step by step, to the
knowledge of the more complex;
assigning in thought a certain
order even to those objects which
in their own nature do not stand
in a relation of antecedence
and sequence.
And the last, in every case
to make enumerations so complete,
and reviews so general, that
I might be assured that nothing
was omitted.
The long chains of simple and
easy reasonings by means of which
geometers are accustomed to reach
the conclusions of their most
difficult demonstrations, had
led me to imagine that all things,
to the knowledge of which man
is competent, are mutually connected
in the same way, and that there
is nothing so far removed from
us as to be beyond our reach,
or so hidden that we cannot discover
it, provided only we abstain
from accepting the false for
the true, and always preserve
in our thoughts the order necessary
for the deduction of one truth
from another. And I had little
difficulty in determining the
objects with which it was necessary
to commence, for I was already
persuaded that it must be with
the simplest and easiest to know,
and, considering that of all
those who have hitherto sought
truth in the sciences, the mathematicians
alone have been able to find
any demonstrations, that is,
any certain and evident reasons,
I did not doubt but that such
must have been the rule of their
investigations. I resolved to
commence, therefore, with the
examination of the simplest objects,
not anticipating, however, from
this any other advantage than
that to be found in accustoming
my mind to the love and nourishment
of truth, and to a distaste for
all such reasonings as were unsound.
But I had no intention on that
account of attempting to master
all the particular sciences commonly
denominated mathematics: but
observing that, however different
their objects, they all agree
in considering only the various
relations or proportions subsisting
among those objects, I thought
it best for my purpose to consider
these proportions in the most
general form possible, without
referring them to any objects
in particular, except such as
would most facilitate the knowledge
of them, and without by any means
restricting them to these, that
afterwards I might thus be the
better able to apply them to
every other class of objects
to which they are legitimately
applicable. Perceiving further,
that in order to understand these
relations I should sometimes
have to consider them one by
one and sometimes only to bear
them in mind, or embrace them
in the aggregate, I thought that,
in order the better to consider
them individually, I should view
them as subsisting between straight
lines, than which I could find
no objects more simple, or capable
of being more distinctly represented
to my imagination and senses;
and on the other hand, that in
order to retain them in the memory
or embrace an aggregate of many,
I should express them by certain
characters the briefest possible.
In this way I believed that I
could borrow all that was best
both in geometrical analysis
and in algebra, and correct all
the defects of the one by help
of the other.
And, in point of fact, the
accurate observance of these
few precepts gave me, I take
the liberty of saying, such ease
in unraveling all the questions
embraced in these two sciences,
that in the two or three months
I devoted to their examination,
not only did I reach solutions
of questions I had formerly deemed
exceedingly difficult but even
as regards questions of the solution
of which I continued ignorant,
I was enabled, as it appeared
to me, to determine the means
whereby, and the extent to which
a solution was possible; results
attributable to the circumstance
that I commenced with the simplest
and most general truths, and
that thus each truth discovered
was a rule available in the discovery
of subsequent ones Nor in this
perhaps shall I appear too vain,
if it be considered that, as
the truth on any particular point
is one whoever apprehends the
truth, knows all that on that
point can be known. The child,
for example, who has been instructed
in the elements of arithmetic,
and has made a particular addition,
according to rule, may be assured
that he has found, with respect
to the sum of the numbers before
him, and that in this instance
is within the reach of human
genius. Now, in conclusion, the
method which teaches adherence
to the true order, and an exact
enumeration of all the conditions
of the thing .sought includes
all that gives certitude to the
rules of arithmetic.
But the chief ground of my
satisfaction with thus method,
was the assurance I had of thereby
exercising my reason in all matters,
if not with absolute perfection,
at least with the greatest attainable
by me: besides, I was conscious
that by its use my mind was becoming
gradually habituated to clearer
and more distinct conceptions
of its objects; and I hoped also,
from not having restricted this
method to any particular matter,
to apply it to the difficulties
of the other sciences, with not
less success than to those of
algebra. I should not, however,
on this account have ventured
at once on the examination of
all the difficulties of the sciences
which presented themselves to
me, for this would have been
contrary to the order prescribed
in the method, but observing
that the knowledge of such is
dependent on principles borrowed
from philosophy, in which I found
nothing certain, I thought it
necessary first of all to endeavor
to establish its principles.
.And because I observed, besides,
that an inquiry of this kind
was of all others of the greatest
moment, and one in which precipitancy
and anticipation in judgment
were most to be dreaded, I thought
that I ought not to approach
it till I had reached a more
mature age (being at that time
but twenty-three), and had first
of all employed much of my time
in preparation for the work,
as well by eradicating from my
mind all the erroneous opinions
I had up to that moment accepted,
as by amassing variety of experience
to afford materials for my reasonings,
and by continually exercising
myself in my chosen method with
a view to increased skill in
its application. |