DISCOURSE ON METHOD. 75 



reached the top ; for it seems to me that they also 

 sink, in other words, render themselves less wise 

 than they would be if they gave up study, who, not 

 contented with knowing all that is intelligibly 

 explained in their author, desire in addition to find 

 in him the solution of many difficulties of which he 

 says not a word, and never perhaps so much as 

 thought. Their fashion of philosophizing, however, 

 is well suited to persons whose abilities fall below 

 mediocrity ; for the obscurity of the distinctions and 

 principles of which they make use enables them to 

 speak of all things with as much confidence as if 

 they really knew them, and to defend all that they 

 say on any subject against the most subtle and skil 

 ful, without its being possible for any one to convict 

 them of error. In this they seem to me to be like a 

 blind man, who, in order to fight on equal terms 

 with a person that sees, should have made him 

 descend to the bottom of an intensely dark cave: 

 and I may say that such persons have an interest in 

 my refraining from publishing the principles of the 

 Philosophy of which I make use ; for, since these 

 are of a kind the simplest and most evident, I 

 should, by publishing them, do much the same as if 

 I were to throw open the windows, and allow the 

 light of day to enter the cave into which the com 

 batants had descended. But even superior men 

 have no reason for any great anxiety to know these 

 principles, for if what they desire is to be able to 

 speak of all things, and to acquire a reputation for 

 learning, they will gain their end more easily by 

 remaining satisfied with the appearance of truth, 



