00 



76 DESCARTES. 



which can be found without much difficulty in all 

 sorts of matters, than by seeking the truth itself 

 which unfolds itself but slowly and that only in 

 some departments, while it obliges us, when we 

 have to speak of others, freely to confess our igno- 

 rance. If, however, they prefer the knowledge of 

 some few truths to the vanity of appearing igno- 

 rant of none, as such knowledge is undoubtedly much 

 to be preferred, and, if they choose to follow a 

 course similar to mine, they do not require for this 

 that I should say anything more than I have already 

 said in this Discourse. For if they are capable of 

 making greater advancement than I have made, 

 they will much more be able of themselves to dis- 

 cover all that I believe myself to have found ; since 

 as I have never examined aught except in order, it 

 is certain that what yet remains to be discovered is 

 in itself more difficult and recondite, than that which 

 I have already been enabled to find, and the grati- 

 fication would be much less in learning it from me 

 than in discovering it for themselves. Besides this, 

 the habit which they will acquire, by seeking first 

 what is easy, and then passing onward slowly and 

 step by step to the more difficult, will benefit them 

 more than all my instructions. Thus, in my own 

 case, I am persuaded that if I had been taught from 

 my youth all the truths of which I have since 

 sought out demonstrations, and had thus learned 

 them without labour, I should never, perhaps, have 

 known any beyond these; at least, I should never 

 have acquired the habit and the facility which I 

 think I possess in always discovering new truths in 



