DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD

[prece]dents. This led me to take the liberty of judging all others by myself, and to think that there was no doctrine in the world that was such as I had previously been led to hope for.

I did not, however, cease to value the exercises one occupies oneself with in the schools Descartes refers here to his education at the Jesuit college of La Flèche, where he studied the traditional "humanities" curriculum.. I knew that the languages learned there are necessary for understanding ancient books; that the charm of fables awakens the mind; that the memorable deeds of history uplift it, and that when read with discretion, they help to form one's judgment; that the reading of all good books is like a conversation with the most honorable people original: "honnêtes gens". In 17th-century France, this referred to a social and moral ideal of a person who was refined, virtuous, and well-educated. of past centuries who were their authors, and even a carefully studied conversation in which they reveal to us only the best of their thoughts; that eloquence has incomparable strengths and beauties; that poetry has very ravishing delicacies and sweetnesses; that mathematics contains very subtle inventions which can serve much both to satisfy the curious and to facilitate all the arts and diminish human labor; that writings dealing with morals contain many teachings and many exhortations to virtue which are very useful; that theology teaches how to reach heaven; that philosophy provides the means to speak plausibly original: "vraisemblablement". Descartes is being slightly critical here, suggesting that philosophy allows one to sound convincing without necessarily possessing certain truth. about all things and to make oneself admired by the less learned; that jurisprudence The study and theory of law., medicine, and other sciences bring honors and riches to those who cultivate them; and finally, that it is good to have examined them all, even the most superstitious and the most false, in order to know their true value and to guard against being deceived by them.

But I believed I had already given enough time to languages, and even also to the reading of ancient books and their histories and fables; for conversing with those of other centuries is almost the same as traveling. It is good to know something of the customs of various peoples, so that we may judge our own more soundly, and so that we do not think everything contrary to our fashions is ridiculous and against reason, as those who have seen nothing are accustomed to doing. But when one spends too much time traveling, one eventually becomes a stranger in one's own country; and when one is too curious about things practiced in past centuries, one usually remains quite ignorant of those practiced in this one. Furthermore, fables make us imagine many events as possible which are not so at all; and even the most faithful histories, if they do not change or increase the value of things to make them more worthy of being read, at least omit almost