Memoir on the Discovery

The text begins mid-sentence, continuing from the previous page's discussion on the limitations of sight. ignorance of the distance, the size, and the shape of objects, if, by comparing and combining the impressions of other organs, he did not learn to rectify them one by another. Most sensations are, therefore, the result of his reflections on the impressions gathered within his organs.

It is in this way that man spends his early years acquiring the prompt and accurate use of his senses: his inclination toward observation, which he receives from Nature, enables him to form himself; and the perfection of his faculties depends on his more or less constant application.

Among the infinite number of objects which successively offer themselves to him, his attention is essentially directed toward those which interest him through more specific relationships.

Memoir original: "Mémoire" - a formal written account or essay intended for a learned society, Discovery, sensations, organs, reflections, Nature, faculties