tions; and those who travel very slowly may yet 

 make far greater progress, provided they keep 

 always to the straight road, than those who, while 

 they run, forsake it. 



For myself, I have never fancied my mind to be 

 in any respect more perfect than those of the gener- 

 ality; on the contrary, I have often wished that I 

 were equal to some others in promptitude of 

 thought, or in clearness and distinctness of imagi- 

 nation, or in fulness and readiness of memory. 

 And besides these, I know of no other qualities that 

 contribute to the perfection of the mind ; for as to 

 the Reason or Sense, inasmuch as it is that alone 

 which constitutes us men, and distinguishes us from 

 the brutes, I am disposed to believe that it is to be 

 found complete in each individual ; and on this point 

 to adopt the common opinion of philosophers, who 

 say that the difference of greater and less holds only 

 among the accidents, and not among the forms or 

 natures of individuals of the same species. 



I will not hesitate, however, to avow my belief 

 that it has been my singular good fortune to have 

 very early in life fallen in with certain tracks which 

 have conducted me to considerations and maxims, 

 of which I have formed a Method that gives me the 

 i'means, as I think, of gradually augmenting my know- 

 fledge, and of raising it by little and little to the high - 

 lest point which the mediocrity of my talents and the 

 brief duration of my life wiUjpertnit me to_reach. 

 For I have already reaped from it such fruits that, 

 although I have been accustomed to think lowly 

 enough of myself, and although when I look with 



