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.
PART II
I was then in Germany, attracted thither by the
wars in that country, which have not yet been brought to a termination;
and as I was returning to the army from the coronation of the emperor,
the setting in of winter arrested me in a locality where, as I found no
society to interest me, and was besides fortunately undisturbed by any
cares or passions, I remained the whole day in seclusion, with full
opportunity to occupy my attention with my own thoughts. Of these one
of the very first that occurred to me was, that there is seldom so much
perfection in works composed of many separate parts, upon which
different hands had been employed, as in those
completed
by a single master.
