IO DESCARTES. 



to discriminate the right path in life, and proceed 

 in it with confidence. 



It is true that, while busied only in considering 

 the manners of other men, I found here, too, scarce 

 any ground for settled conviction, and remarked 

 hardly less contradiction among them than in the 

 opinions of the philosophers. So that the greatest 

 advantage I derived from the study consisted in 

 this, that, observing many things which, however 

 extravagant and ridiculous to our apprehension, are 

 yet by common consent received and approved by 

 other great nations, I learned to entertain too 

 decided a belief in regard to nothing of the truth of 

 which I had been persuaded merely by example and 

 custom: and thus I gradually extricated myself 

 from many errors powerful enough to darken our 

 Natural Intelligence, and incapacitate us in great 

 measure from listening to Reason. But after I had 

 been occupied several years in thus studying the 

 book of the world, and in essaying to gather some 

 experience, I at length resolved to make myself an 

 object of study, and to employ all the powers of my 

 mind in choosing the paths I ought to follow; an 

 undertaking which was accompanied with greater 

 success than it would have been had I never quitted 

 my country or my books. 



