I esteemed eloquence highly, and was in raptures with poesy; but I
thought that both were gifts of nature rather than fruits of study.
Those in whom the faculty of reason is predominant, and who most
skillfully dispose their thoughts with a view to render them clear and
intelligible, are always the best able to persuade others of the truth
of what they lay down, though they should speak only in the language of
Lower Brittany, and be wholly ignorant of the rules of rhetoric; and
those whose minds are stored with the most agreeable fancies, and who
can give expression to them with the greatest embellishment and harmony,
are still the best poets, though unacquainted with the art of poetry.
I was especially delighted with the mathematics, on account of the
certitude and evidence of their reasonings; but I had not as yet a
precise knowledge of their true use; and thinking that they but
contributed to the advancement of the mechanical arts, I was astonished
that foundations, so strong and solid, should have had no loftier
superstructure reared on them. On the other hand, I compared the
disquisitions of the ancient moralists to very towering and magnificent
palaces with no better foundation than sand and mud: they laud the
virtues very highly, and exhibit them as estimable far above anything on
earth; but they give us no adequate criterion of virtue, and frequently
that which they designate with so fine a name is but apathy, or pride,
or despair, or parricide.
I revered our theology, and aspired as much as any one to reach heaven:
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 I hoped 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 entire y 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.
