Memoir on Discovery

Human knowledge, thus
distorted, no longer offers anything of the
reality that characterized it in the begin-
ning. The author uses "dénaturées" (denatured), suggesting that knowledge has been stripped of its original, natural essence through historical corruption.

Philosophy has sometimes made
efforts to free itself from errors
and prejudices; but, by overturning
these structures with too much heat Meaning with excessive passion or zeal., she
has covered their ruins with contempt,
without fixing her attention on the precious
elements they contained.

We see among different peo-
ples, the same opinions preserved
under a form so disadvantageous and
so little honorable for the human spirit,
that it is not likely that they
were established in this form.

Imposture and the wandering of
reason would have in vain attempted to con-
ciliate the nations, to make them gen-