DISCOURSE ON METHOD. 39 



they could not subsist without him for a single 

 moment. 



I was disposed straightway to search for other 

 truths; and when 1 had represented to myself the 

 object of the geometers, which I conceived to be a 

 continuous body, or a space indefinitely extended 

 in length, breadth, and height or depth, divisible 

 into divers parts which admit of different figures 

 and sizes, and of being moved or transposed in all 

 manner of ways, (for all this the geometers suppose 

 to be in the object they contemplated I went over 

 some of their simplest demonstrations. And, in the 

 first place, I observed, that the great certitude which 

 by common consent is accorded to these demonstra 

 tions, is founded solely upon this, that they are 

 clearly conceived in accordance with the rules I 

 have already laid down. In the next place, I per 

 ceived that there was nothing at all in these demon 

 strations which could assure me of the existence of 

 their object: thus, for example, supposing a tri 

 angle to be given, I distinctly perceived that its 

 three angles were necessarily equal to two right 

 angles, but I did not on that account perceive any 

 thing which could assure me that any triangle 

 existed: while, on the contrary, recurring to the 

 examination of the idea of a Perfect Being, I found 

 that the existence of the Being was comprised in the 

 idea in the same way that the equality of its three 

 angles to two right angles is comprised in the idea 

 of a triangle, or as in the idea of a sphere, the 

 equidistance of all points on its surface from the 

 centre, or even still more clearly; and that conse- 



