DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD

always [omitting] the lowliest and least illustrious circumstances; as a result, the remainder does not appear as it truly is, and those who regulate their own conduct by the examples they draw from them are liable to fall into the extravagances of the paladins Descartes refers to the "knights-errant" of chivalric romances, like those in Don Quixote, who lose their grip on reality by trying to live out heroic fictions. of our romances, and to conceive designs that exceed their horizontal line/smudge abilities.

I held eloquence in high regard and was enamored with poetry; but I thought that both were gifts of the mind rather than fruits of study. Those who possess the strongest reasoning, and who best digest their thoughts in order to make them clear and intelligible, can always best persuade others of what they propose, even if they spoke only Low Breton original: "bas-breton". A Celtic language spoken in western Brittany, which in the 17th century was seen by the French elite as a rustic, unrefined tongue of the common people. and had never learned rhetoric; and those who have the most pleasing inventions and who know how to express them with the most ornament and sweetness would still be the best poets, even if the art of poetry were unknown to them.

I took particular pleasure in mathematics because of the certainty and the evidence of its reasons; but I did not yet notice its true use, and, thinking that it only served the mechanical arts In this period, "mechanical arts" referred to practical engineering, navigation, and craftsmanship, which were often considered less prestigious than "pure" theoretical sciences., I was astonished that, since its foundations were so firm and solid, nothing more lofty had been built upon them. Conversely, I compared the writings of the ancient pagans that treat morals to very superb and magnificent palaces built only on sand and mud: they extol the virtues very highly and make them appear more estimable than anything else in the world; but they do not teach us well enough how to recognize them, and often what they call by such a beautiful name is merely an insensibility A likely critique of Stoicism, a school of philosophy that taught the suppression of emotions and indifference to pain., or pride, or despair, or parricide.

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I revered our theology and aspired as much as anyone else to reach heaven; but, having learned as a very certain thing that the path to it is no less open to the most ignorant than to the most learned, and that the revealed truths which lead there are beyond our intelligence, I would not have dared to submit them to my weak reasonings; and I thought that, to undertake an examination of them and to succeed, it was necessary to have some extraordinary assistance from Heaven and to be more than a man.

I will say nothing of philosophy, except that, seeing it has been cultivated by the most excellent minds that have lived for several centuries, and that nonetheless there is still nothing in it which is not disputed, and consequently which is not doubtful, I did not have enough presumption to hope to encounter more success there than others; and that, considering how many different opi-