TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
With respect to the Tract, of which a translation is here presented, it may be proper to state, that what refers strictly to its matter has been reserved for the Introduction.
It may be necessary, however, here to mention, that the Discourse on Method is possessed of a twofold value and interest; firstly, on account of the doctrines which, viewed in itself, the Tract contains; and, secondly, from its being the general introduction to the works of Descartes, which, as is well known, were the means of eliciting the intense philosophical activity of the last two centuries, of determining the current of this activity, and of raising those problems with which philosophical schools continue at this hour to grapple.—The Translator would consider that an important end had been promoted were the present translation of the Method to aid in fixing the attention of those interested in philo-
