subsequent years, I did nothing but roam from one place to another,
desirous of being a  spectator rather than an actor in the plays exhibited
on the theater of the world; and, as I made it my business in each matter
to reflect particularly upon what might fairly be doubted and prove a
source of error, I gradually rooted out from my mind all the errors which
had hitherto crept into it.  Not that in this I imitated the sceptics who
doubt only that they may doubt, and seek nothing beyond uncertainty
itself; for, on the contrary, my design  was singly to find ground of
assurance, and cast aside the  loose earth and sand, that I might reach
the rock or the clay.  In this, as appears to me, I was successful enough;
for, since I endeavored to discover the falsehood or incertitude of the
propositions I examined, not by feeble conjectures, but by clear and
certain reasonings, I met with nothing so doubtful as not to yield some
conclusion of adequate certainty, although this were merely the inference,
that the matter in question contained nothing certain.  And, just as in
pulling down an old house, we usually reserve the ruins to contribute
towards the erection, so, in destroying such of my opinions as I judged to
be Ill-founded, I made a variety of observations and acquired an amount of
experience of which I availed myself in the establishment of more certain.
And further, I continued to exercise myself in the method I had
prescribed; for, besides taking care in general to conduct all my thoughts
according to its rules, I reserved some hours from time to time which I
expressly devoted to the employment of the method in the solution of
mathematical difficulties, or even in the solution likewise of some
questions belonging to other sciences, but which, by my having detached
them from such principles of these sciences as were of inadequate
certainty, were rendered almost mathematical:  the truth of this will be
manifest from the numerous examples contained in this volume.  And thus,
without in appearance living otherwise than those who, with no other
occupation than that of spending their lives agreeably and innocently,
study to sever pleasure from vice, and who, that they may enjoy their
leisure without ennui, have recourse to such pursuits as are honorable, I
was nevertheless prosecuting my design, and making greater progress in the
knowledge of truth, than I might, perhaps, have made had I been engaged in
the perusal of books merely, or in holding converse with men of letters.

These nine years passed away, however, before I had come to any
determinate judgment respecting the difficulties which form matter of
dispute among the learned, or had commenced to seek the principles of any
philosophy more certain than the vulgar.  And the examples of many men of
the highest genius, who had, in former times, engaged in this inquiry,
but, as appeared to me, without success, led me to imagine it to be a work
of so much difficulty, that I would not perhaps have ventured on it so
soon had I not heard it currently  rumored that I had already completed
the inquiry.  I know not what were the grounds of this opinion; and, if my
conversation contributed in any measure to its rise, this must have
happened rather from my having confessed my Ignorance with greater freedom
than those are accustomed to do who have studied a little, and expounded
perhaps, the reasons that led me to doubt of many of those things that by
others are esteemed certain, than from my having boasted of any system of
philosophy.  But, as I am of a disposition that makes me unwilling to be
esteemed different from what I really am, I thought it necessary to
endeavor by all means to render myself worthy of the reputation accorded
to me; and it is now exactly eight years since this desire constrained me
to remove from all those places where interruption from any of my
acquaintances was possible, and betake myself to this country, in which
the long duration of the war has led to the establishment of such
discipline, that the armies maintained seem to be of use only in enabling
the inhabitants to enjoy more securely the blessings of peace and where,
in the midst of a great crowd actively engaged in business, and more
careful of their own affairs than curious about those of others, I have
been enabled to live without being deprived of any of the conveniences to
be had in the most populous cities, and yet as solitary and as retired as
in the midst of the most remote deserts.

PART IV

I am in doubt as to the propriety of making my first meditations in the
place above mentioned matter of discourse; for these are so metaphysical,
and so uncommon, as not, perhaps, to be acceptable to every one.  And yet,
that it may be determined whether the foundations that I have laid are
sufficiently secure, I find myself in a measure constrained to advert to
them.  I had long before remarked that, in relation to practice, it is
sometimes necessary to adopt, as if above doubt, opinions which we discern
to be highly uncertain, as has been already said; but as I then desired to
give my attention solely to the search after truth, I thought that a
procedure exactly the opposite was called for, and that I ought to reject
as absolutely false all opinions in regard to which I could suppose the
least ground for doubt, in order to ascertain whether after that there
remained aught in my belief that was wholly indubitable.  Accordingly,
seeing that our senses sometimes deceive us, I was willing to suppose that
there existed nothing really such as they presented to us; and because
some men err in reasoning, and fall into paralogisms, even on the simplest
matters of geometry, I, convinced that I was as open to error as any
other, rejected as false all the reasonings I had hitherto taken for
demonstrations; and finally, when I considered that the very same thoughts
(presentations) which we experience when awake may also be experienced
when we are asleep, while there is at that time not one of them true, I
supposed that all the objects (presentations) that had ever entered into
my mind when awake, had in them no more truth than the illusions of my
dreams.  But immediately upon this I observed that, whilst I thus wished to
think that all was false, it was absolutely necessary that I, who thus
thought, should be somewhat; and as I observed that this truth, I think,
therefore I am (COGITO ERGO SUM), was so certain and of such evidence that
no ground of doubt, however extravagant, could be alleged by the sceptics
capable of shaking it, I concluded that I might, without scruple, accept
it as the first principle of the philosophy of which I was in search

In the next place, I attentively examined what I was and as I observed
that I could suppose that I had no body, and that there was no world nor