20 DESCARTES. 



connected in the same way, and that there is noth- 

 . ing so far removed from us as to be beyond our 



/reach, or so hidden that we cannot discover it^pro- 

 vided 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 com- 

 mence, for I was already persuaded that it must be 

 with the simplest and easiest to know, and, consider- 

 ing 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 exami- 

 nation 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 inten- 

 tion on that account of attempting to master all the 

 particular Sciences commonly denominated Mathe- 

 matics : 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 



