32 DESCARTES. 



occupation than that of spending their lives agree- 

 ably and innocently, study to sever pleasure from 

 vice, and who, that they may enjoy their leisure 

 without ennui, have recourse to such pursuits as are 

 honourable, I was nevertheless prosecuting my 

 design, and making greater progress in the knowl- 

 edge of truth, than I might, perhaps, have made 

 had I been engaged in the perusal of books merely, 

 or in holding converse with men of letters. 



These nine years passed away, however, before I 

 had come to any determinate judgment respecting 

 the difficulties which form matter of dispute among 

 the learned, or had commenced to seek the prin- 

 ciples of any Philosophy more certain than the 

 vulgar. And the examples of many men of the 

 highest genius, who had, in former times, engaged 

 in this inquiry, but, as appeared to me, without suc- 

 cess, led me to imagine it to be a work of so much 

 difficulty, that I would not perhaps have ventured 

 on it so soon had I not heard it currently rumoured 

 that I had already completed the inquiry. I know 

 not what were the grounds of this opinion; 

 and, if my conversation contributed in any measure 

 to its rise, this must have happened rather from my 

 having confessed my ignorance with greater free- 

 dom than those are accustomed to do who have 

 studied a little, and expounded, perhaps, the reasons 

 that led me to doubt of many of those things that by 

 others are esteemed certain, than from my having 

 boasted of any system of Philosophy. But, as I am 

 of a disposition that makes me unwilling to be 

 esteemed different from what I really am, I thought 



