Philosophie des hautes sciences

If you do not succeed, reread the whole Work, without becoming impatient or disgusted; but rather by operating theoretically and practically; and having, I do not say only felt truths, but operated some marvel in one of the branches of the wise Cabale Kabbalah or secret tradition, (Page 191, third Notebook,), then read at your choice, or as the Works speaking for or against the High Sciences present themselves, since it is a truth that Refuters, Sophists, and absolutely neutral Men, have often translated or copied word for word entire passages that they did not understand and which will be familiar to you.

If you took it upon yourself to spend days and nights studying, you would start by acting against Wisdom: now, without Wisdom, Science is closed.

It is good to keep watch at night; but it is when the day has been perfectly filled for Society and for oneself; for,

to speak to you sincerely, what is a Man who, to be or become more instructed than others, puts himself in the position of having one day neither housing, nor clothing, nor food, because he throws all his time into High Sciences where reflection without manual labor serves him more than haphazard work without reflection? Read the Philosophers, nevertheless without distracting yourself from this truth, which is so familiar to them: Without practice, virtues are dead and useless.

It is by lacking order that one succeeds in nothing, and that one makes oneself despised by the Wise and by the Ignorant. One must only work, I say without any relaxation, at the High Sciences, after having been able to say to Society: I have produced my share for your need for thirty years, and I have saved from my own enough to enjoy rest for the remainder of my days without envy and without being envied. Happy is the Nation whose Peoples will be constrained to begin their