The Principles of Philosophy | Page 8

they have studied it the less fit are they for rightly
apprehending the truth.
I should also have added a word of advice regarding the manner of
reading this work, which is, that I should wish the reader at first to go
over the whole of it, as he would a romance, without greatly straining
his attention, or tarrying at the difficulties he may perhaps meet with in
it, with the view simply of knowing in general the matters of which I
treat; and that afterwards, if they seem to him to merit a more careful
examination, and he feel a desire to know their causes, he may read it a
second time, in order to observe the connection of my reasonings; but
that he must not then give it up in despair, although he may not
everywhere sufficiently discover the connection of the proof, or
understand all the reasonings--it being only necessary to mark with a
pen the places where the difficulties occur, and continue to read
without interruption to the end; then, if he does not grudge to take up
the book a third time, I am confident he will find in a fresh perusal the
solution of most of the difficulties he will have marked before; and that,
if any still remain, their solution will in the end be found in another
reading.
I have observed, on examining the natural constitutions of different
minds, that there are hardly any so dull or slow of understanding as to
be incapable of apprehending good opinions, or even of acquiring all
the highest sciences, if they be but conducted along the right road. And
this can also be proved by reason; for, as the principles are clear, and as
nothing ought to be deduced from them, unless most manifest
inferences, no one is so devoid of intelligence as to be unable to
comprehend the conclusions that flow from them. But, besides the
entanglement of prejudices, from which no one is entirely exempt,
although it is they who have been the most ardent students of the false
sciences that receive the greatest detriment from them, it happens very

generally that people of ordinary capacity neglect to study from a
conviction that they want ability, and that others, who are more ardent,
press on too rapidly: whence it comes to pass that they frequently admit
principles far from evident, and draw doubtful inferences from them.
For this reason, I should wish to assure those who are too distrustful of
their own ability that there is nothing in my writings which they may
not entirely understand, if they only take the trouble to examine them;
and I should wish, at the same time, to warn those of an opposite
tendency that even the most superior minds will have need of much
time and attention to remark all I designed to embrace therein.
After this, that I might lead men to understand the real design I had in
publishing them, I should have wished here to explain the order which
it seems to me one ought to follow with the view of instructing himself.
In the first place, a man who has merely the vulgar and imperfect
knowledge which can be acquired by the four means above explained,
ought, before all else, to endeavour to form for himself a code of
morals, sufficient to regulate the actions of his life, as well for the
reason that this does not admit of delay as because it ought to be our
first care to live well. In the next place, he ought to study Logic, not
that of the schools, for it is only, properly speaking, a dialectic which
teaches the mode of expounding to others what we already know, or
even of speaking much, without judgment, of what we do not know, by
which means it corrupts rather than increases good sense--but the logic
which teaches the right conduct of the reason with the view of
discovering the truths of which we are ignorant; and, because it greatly
depends on usage, it is desirable he should exercise himself for a length
of time in practising its rules on easy and simple questions, as those of
the mathematics. Then, when he has acquired some skill in discovering
the truth in these questions, he should commence to apply himself in
earnest to true philosophy, of which the first part is Metaphysics,
containing the principles of knowledge, among which is the explication
of the principal attributes of God, of the immateriality of the soul, and
of all the clear and simple notions that are in us; the second is Physics,
in which, after finding the true principles of material things, we
examine, in general, how the whole universe has been framed; in the
next place, we consider, in particular,