but being given assuredly to understand that the way is not less open to the most ignorant than to the most learned,and that the revealed truths which lead to heaven are above our comprehension,I did not presume to subject them to the impotency of my reason;and I thought that in order competently to undertake their examination,there was need of some special help from heaven,and of being more than man.
Of philosophy I will say nothing,except that when I saw that it had been cultivated for many ages by the most distinguished men,and that yet there is not a single matter within its sphere which is not still in dispute,and nothing,therefore,which is above doubt,I did not presume to anticipate that my success would be greater in it than that of others;and further,when I considered the number of conflicting opinions touching a single matter that may be upheld by learned men,while there can be but one true,I reckoned as well-nigh false all that was only probable.
As to the other sciences,inasmuch as these borrow their principles from philosophy,I judged that no solid superstructures could be reared on foundations so infirm;and neither the honor nor the gain held out by them was sufficient to determine me to their cultivation:for I was not,thank Heaven,in a condition which compelled me to make merchandise of science for the bettering of my fortune;and though I might not profess to scorn glory as a cynic,I yet made very slight account of that honor which Ihoped to acquire only through fictitious titles.And,in fine,of false sciences I thought I knew the worth sufficiently to escape being deceived by the professions of an alchemist,the predictions of an astrologer,the impostures of a magician,or by the artifices and boasting of any of those who profess to know things of which they are ignorant.
For these reasons,as soon as my age permitted me to pass from under the control of my instructors,I entirely abandoned the study of letters,and resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself,or of the great book of the world.I spent the remainder of my youth in traveling,in visiting courts and armies,in holding intercourse with men of different dispositions and ranks,in collecting varied experience,in proving myself in the different situations into which fortune threw me,and,above all,in making such reflection on the matter of my experience as to secure my improvement.For it occurred to me that I should find much more truth in the reasonings of each individual with reference to the affairs in which he is personally interested,and the issue of which must presently punish him if he has judged amiss,than in those conducted by a man of letters in his study,regarding speculative matters that are of no practical moment,and followed by no consequences to himself,farther,perhaps,than that they foster his vanity the better the more remote they are from common sense;requiring,as they must in this case,the exercise of greater ingenuity and art to render them probable.In addition,I had always a most earnest desire to know how to distinguish the true from the false,in order that I might be able clearly to discriminate the right path in life,and proceed in it with confidence.
It is true that,while busied only in considering the manners of other men,I found here,too,scarce any ground for settled conviction,and remarked hardly less contradiction among them than in the opinions of the philosophers.So that the greatest advantage I derived from the study consisted in this,that,observing many things which,however extravagant and ridiculous to our apprehension,are yet by common consent received and approved by other great nations,I learned to entertain too decided a belief in regard to nothing of the truth of which I had been persuaded merely by example and custom;and thus I gradually extricated myself from many errors powerful enough to darken our natural intelligence,and incapacitate us in great measure from listening to reason.But after I had been occupied several years in thus studying the book of the world,and in essaying to gather some experience,I at length resolved to make myself an object of study,and to employ all the powers of my mind in choosing the paths I ought to follow,an undertaking which was accompanied with greater success than it would have been had I never quitted my country or my books.
