INTRODUCTION.

...[objects], your rages or your delusions; or only to deceive and lead others astray through the countless and misleading fictions of your thought?

If a single glance is enough to disillusion you regarding the frivolous and guilty use of your faculties original: "facultés." In the context of 18th-century mystical philosophy, these are the inherent spiritual and intellectual powers—such as will, intellect, and imagination—that the author believes were given to humans for a divine purpose., a single glance should also suffice to disillusion you about the results you gain from them. Weigh all these results in the balance; you will not find one that does not escape you, or that does not fall short of your hopes; that does not feed you with anxieties, or that does not end by costing you tears.

What, then, is this region where nothing that is ourselves fulfills its law original: "loi." This refers to the "true law" or the natural, divine order that a being is supposed to follow to achieve its purpose., and where we do not taste a single joy that does not deceive us! Yes, a dominating and seemingly fundamental illusion original: "prestige." In the author's time, this word did not mean social status, but rather a magical spell, a deceptive appearance, or a "glamour" that blinds the senses. appears to make up the atmosphere in which we are immersed. We are reduced to constantly and almost exclusively breathing this vapor of illusion that surrounds us, which we then pass on to one another after having further infected it with our own corruption; or if we wish to protect ourselves from it, we must condemn ourselves to suspend the activity of all our faculties and exist in total immobility.

In the Alps, look at that hunter who is sometimes surprised and suddenly enveloped by a sea of thick vapors, where he cannot even see his own feet or his own hand; and where he is forced to stop exactly where he stands, for lack of being able to take a single step in safety. What this hunter is only by accident and at intervals, man is here below continually and without respite. His earth- The word is cut off and likely continues as "terrestres" (earthly) on the following page.