PART III. 



AND, finally, as it is not enough, before commenc 

 ing to rebuild the house in which we live, that it be 

 pulled down, and materials and builders provided, 

 or that we engage in the work ourselves, according 

 to a plan which we have beforehand carefully 

 drawn out, but as it is likewise necessary that we be 

 furnished with some other house in which we may 

 live commodiously during the operations, so that I 

 might not remain irresolute in my actions, while 

 my Reason compelled me to suspend my judgment, 

 and that I might not be prevented from living 

 thenceforward in the greatest possible felicity, I 

 formed a provisory code of Morals, composed of 

 three or four maxims, with which I am desirous to 

 make you acquainted. 



The first was to obey the laws and customs of my 

 country, adhering firmly to the Faith in which, by 

 the grace of God, I had been educated from my 

 childhood, and regulating my conduct in every 

 other matter according to the most moderate opin 

 ions, and the farthest removed from extremes, 

 which should happen to be adopted in practice with 

 general consent of the most judicious of those 

 among whom I might be living. For, as I had from 

 that time begun to hold my own opinions for nought 

 because I wished to subject them all to examina- 



24 



