some few truths to the vanity of appearing ignorant of none, as such
knowledge is undoubtedly much to be preferred, and, if they choose to
follow a course similar to mine, they do not require for this that I
should say anything more than I have already said in this discourse. For
if they are capable of making greater advancement than I have made, they
will much more be able of themselves to discover all that I believe myself
to have found; since as I have never examined aught except in order, it is
certain that what yet remains to be discovered is in itself more difficult
and recondite, than that which I have already been enabled to find, and
the gratification would be much less in learning it from me than in
discovering it for themselves. Besides this, the habit which they will
acquire, by seeking first what is easy, and then passing onward slowly and
step by step to the more difficult, will benefit them more than all my
instructions. Thus, in my own case, I am persuaded that if I had been
taught from my youth all the truths of which I have since sought out
demonstrations, and had thus learned them without labour, I should never,
perhaps, have known any beyond these; at least, I should never have
acquired the habit and the facility which I think I possess in always
discovering new truths in proportion as I give myself to the search.
And, in a single word, if there is any work in the world which cannot
be so well finished by another as by him who has commenced it, it is
that at which I labour.

It is true, indeed, as regards the experiments which may conduce to this
end, that one man is not equal to the task of making them all; but yet he
can advantageously avail himself, in this work, of no hands besides his
own, unless those of artisans, or parties of the same kind, whom he could
pay, and whom the hope of gain (a means of great efficacy) might stimulate
to accuracy in the performance of what was prescribed to them. For as to
those who, through curiosity or a desire of learning, of their own accord,