DISCOURSE ON METHOD. 83 



those who unite good sense with habits of study, 

 whom alone I desire for judges, they will not, I feel 

 assured, be so partial to Latin as to refuse to listen 

 to my reasonings merely because I expound them 

 in the vulgar Tongue. 



In conclusion, I am unwilling here to say anything 

 very specific of the progress which I expect to make 

 for the future in the Sciences, or to bind myself to 

 the public by any promise which I am not certain of 

 being able to fulfil ; but this only will I say, that I 

 have resolved to devote what time I may still have 

 to live to no other occupation than that of endeavour- 

 ing to acquire some knowledge of Nature, w*hich 

 shall be of such a kind as to enable us therefrom to 

 deduce rules in Medicine of greater certainty than 

 those at present in use ; and that my inclination is 

 so much opposed to all other pursuits, especially to 

 such as cannot be useful to some without being 

 hurtful to others, that if, by any circumstances, I 

 had been constrained to engage in such, I do not 

 believe that I should have been able to succeed. Of 

 this I here make a public declaration, though well 

 aware that it cannot serve to procure for me any 

 consideration in the world, which, however, I do not 

 in the least affect ; and I shall always hold myself 

 more obliged to those through whose favour I am 

 permitted to enjoy my retirement without inter- 

 ruption than to any who might offer me the highest 

 earthly preferments. 



