If this Discourse appears too long to be read at once, it may be
divided into six Parts: and, in the first, will be found various
considerations touching the Sciences; in the second, the principal rules
of the Method which the Author has discovered, in the third, certain of
the rules of Morals which he has deduced from this Method; in the
fourth, the reasonings by which he establishes the existence of God and
of the Human Soul, which are the foundations of his Metaphysic; in the
fifth, the order of the Physical questions which he has investigated,
and, in particular, the explication of the motion of the heart and of
some other difficulties pertaining to Medicine, as also the difference
between the soul of man and that of the brutes; and, in the last, what
the Author believes to be required in order to greater advancement in
the investigation of Nature than has yet been made, with the reasons
that have induced him to write.
PART 1
Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed;
for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those
even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not
usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already
possess. And in this it is not likely that all are mistaken the
conviction is rather to be held as testifying that the power of judging
aright and of distinguishing truth from error, which is properly what is
called good sense or reason, is by nature equal in all men; and that the
diversity of our opinions, consequently, does not arise from some being
endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from this,
that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our
attention on the same objects. For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is
not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. The greatest
minds, as they are capable of the highest excellences, are open likewise
to the greatest aberrations; and those who travel very slowly may yet
make far greater progress, provided they keep always to the straight
road, than those who, while they run, forsake it.
