Rene Descartes was born March 31, 1596, at La Haye, in the ancient province of Touraine, France, of a noble family of Touraine; and was educated at the College of La Fleche by the Jesuits.  The decisive crisis of his life arrived in 1619, while he was serving as a volunteer with Prince Maurice of Nassau, and the next nine years may be regarded as the period of his formation.  The most fruitful years of his life were spent in Holland, whence he made occasional excursions into France, and perhaps paid a visit to England.  In 1633 he finished his treatise on “The World; or on Light,” an epitome of his “Physics,” which, however, he deemed it wise, in view of Galileo’s fate, to withhold from publication during his lifetime.  Besides the “Discourse on Method” (1637), with the treatises on dioptrics, meteors, and geometry, his principal works were his “Meditations” addressed to the Deans of the Faculty of Theology in the University of Paris; the “Principia Philosophiae,” and the “Traite des Passions de L’Ame,” in which, he handled morals.  Descartes died at Stockholm, whither he had been summoned by Queen Christina, on February 11, 1649.  His work stands a landmark in the modern history of philosophic thought.

I.—­THE AIM OF THIS DISCOURSE

Good sense or reason must be better distributed than anything else in the world, for no man desires more of it than he already has.  This shows that reason is by nature equal in all men.  If there is diversity of opinion, this arises from the fact that we conduct our thought by different ways, and consider not the same things.  It does not suffice that the understanding be good—­it must be well applied.

My mind is no better than another’s, but I have been lucky enough to chance on certain ways, which have led me to a certain method by means of which it seems to me that I may by degrees augment my knowledge to the modest measure of my intellect and my length of days.  I shall be very glad to make plain in this discourse the paths I have followed, and to picture my life so that all may judge of it, and by the setting forth of their opinions may furnish me with yet other means of improvement.

It is my design not to teach the method which each man ought to follow for the right guidance of his reason, but only to show in what manner I have tried to conduct my own.

I had been nourished on letters from my infancy, but as soon as I had finished the customary course of study, I found myself hampered by so many doubts and errors that I seemed to have reaped no benefits, except that I had observed more and more of my ignorance:  Yet I was at one of the most celebrated schools in Europe, and I was not held inferior to my fellow-students, some of whom were destined to take the place of our masters; nor did our age seem less fruitful of good wits than any which had gone before.  Though I did not cease to esteem the studies of the schools, I began to think that I had given enough time to languages,