overlook the smallest particular, I should not be less astonished if they
succeeded on the first attempt than if a person were in one day to become
an accomplished performer on the guitar, by merely having excellent sheets
of music set up before him. And if I write in French, which is the
language of my country, in preference to Latin, which is that of my
preceptors, it is because I expect that those who make use of their
unprejudiced natural reason will be better judges of my opinions than
those who give heed to the writings of the ancients only; and as for those
who unite good sense with habits of study, whom alone I desire for judges,
they will not, I feel assured, be so partial to Latin as to refuse to
listen to my reasonings merely because I expound them in the vulgar tongue.

In conclusion, I am unwilling here to say anything very specific of the
progress which I expect to make for the future in the sciences, or to bind
myself to the public by any promise which I am not certain of being able
to fulfill; but this only will I say, that I have resolved to devote what
time I may still have to live to no other occupation than that of
endeavoring to acquire some knowledge of Nature, which shall be of such a
kind as to enable us therefrom to deduce rules in medicine of greater
certainty than those at present in use; and that my inclination is so much
opposed to all other pursuits, especially to such as cannot be useful to
some without being hurtful to others, that if, by any circumstances, I had
been constrained to engage in such, I do not believe that I should have
been able to succeed. Of this I here make a public declaration, though well
aware that it cannot serve to procure for me any consideration in the
world, which, however, I do not in the least affect; and I shall always
hold myself more obliged to those through whose favor I am permitted to
enjoy my retirement without interruption than to any who might offer me
the highest earthly preferments.