DISCOURSE ON METHOD. 9 



knew the worth sufficiently to escape being deceived 

 by the professions of an alchemist, the predictions 

 of an astrologer, the impostures of a magician, or 

 by the artifices and boasting of any of those who 

 profess to know things of which they are ignorant. 

 For these reasons, as soon as my age permitted 

 me to pass from under the control of my instructors, 

 I entirely abandoned the study of letters, and 

 resolved no longer to seek any other science than 

 the knowledge of myself, or of the great book of the 

 world. I spent the remainder of my youth in 

 travelling, in visiting courts and armies, in holding 

 intercourse with men of different dispositions and 

 ranks, in collecting varied experience, in proving 

 myself in the different situations into which fortune 

 threw me, and, above all, in making such reflection 

 on the matter of my experience as to secure my 

 improvement. For it occurred to me that I should find 

 much more truth in the reasonings of each individual 

 with reference to the affairs in which he is person 

 ally interested, and the issue of which must pres 

 ently punish him if he has judged amiss, than in 

 those conducted by a man of letters in his study, 

 regarding speculative matters that are of no prac 

 tical moment, and followed by no consequences to 

 himself, farther, perhaps, than that they foster his 

 vanity the better the more remote they are from 

 common sense ; requiring, as they must in this case, 

 the exercise of greater ingenuity and art to render 

 them probable. In addition, I had always a most 

 earnest desire to know how to distinguish the true 

 from the false, in order that I might be able clearly 



