170 DESCARTES' DISCOURSE ON METHOD rv 



grievous sins to which it had long been condemned, 

 and enthroned it in that high place among the 

 primary duties, which is assigned to it by the 

 scientific conscience of these latter days. Descartes 

 was the first among the moderns to obey this 

 commandment deliberately; and, as a matter of 

 religious duty, to strip off all his beliefs and reduce 

 himself to a state of intellectual nakedness, until 

 such time as he could satisfy himself which were 

 fit to be worn. He thought a bare skin healthier 

 than the most respectable and well-cut clothing of 

 what might, possibly, be mere shoddy. 



When I say that Descartes consecrated doubt, 

 you must remember that it was that sort of doubt 

 which Goethe has called " the active scepticism, 

 whose whole aim is to conquer itself; "* and not 

 that other sort which is born of flippancy and 

 ignorance, and whose aim is only to perpetuate 

 itself, as an excuse for idleness and indifference. 

 But it is impossible to define what is meant by 

 scientific doubt better than in Descartes' own 

 words. After describing the gradual progr< 

 his negative criticism, he tells us : 



" For all that, I did not imitate the sceptics, who doubt only 

 for doubting's sake, and pretend to be always undecided ; on 

 the contrary, my whole intention was to arrive at a certainty, 

 and to dig away the drift and the sand until I reached the rock 

 or the clay beneath." 



1 " Kim- tliiitigi- Skrpsis ist die, welche unablassi^ liriiiiiht. ist 

 sich selbst zn iiberwinden, uiul durch gcregelte Erfalming zu 



