DISCOURSE ON METHOD. 67 



and perhaps also even from the debility of age, if 

 we had sufficiently ample knowledge of their causes, L^ 

 and of all the remedies provided for us by Nature. ' 

 But since I designed to employ my whole life in the 

 search after so necessary a Science, and since I had 

 fallen in with a path which seems to me such, that if 

 any one follow it he must inevitably reach the end 

 desired, unless he be hindered either by the short- 

 ness of life or the want of experiments, I judged 

 that there could be no more effectual provision 

 against these two impediments than if I were faith- 

 fully to communicate to the public all the little I 

 might myself have found, and incite men of superior 

 genius to strive to proceed farther, by contributing, 

 each according to his inclination and ability, to the 

 experiments which it would be necessary to make, 

 and also by informing the public of all they might 

 discover, so that, by the last beginning where those 

 before them had left off, and thus connecting thei 

 lives and labours of many, we might collectively! 

 proceed much farther than each by himself could doj 

 I remarked, moreover, with respect to experi- 

 ments, that they become always more necessary the / 

 more one is advanced in knowledge;*, for, at the 

 commencement it is better to make use only of what 

 is spontaneously presented to our senses, and of 

 which we cannot remain ignorant, provided we 

 bestow on it any reflection, however slight, than to 

 concern ourselves about more uncommon and recon- 

 dite phaenomena: the reason of which is, that the 

 more uncommon often only mislead us so long as 

 the causes of the more ordinary are still unknown; 



