sophical pursuits on the other works of its great Author.
It is hoped, moreover, that the Method may prove a somewhat suitable accompaniment to the Logic of the Port-Royal. These treatises possess each, indeed, a separate utility: and, though the end sought by each is different, the realization of the ends of both is necessary to perfect knowledge. For while the practical end of Logic is the right ordering of the matter of thought, the end of the Discourse on Method is mainly to manifest the reality, and determine the sphere of knowledge and the latter process does not yield in importance or necessity to the former.
With reference to the translation, it is proper to state that, though the French work has been taken as the basis, the Translator has not considered himself bound to adhere, in every instance, to its text. The first, or French edition has, indeed, been carefully compared throughout with the Latin; and, as this edition is declared by Descartes to have been revised by himself, and to contain amendments on the original from his own hand, the preference has been accorded to it in all cases in which it has appeared to the Translator that the meaning is more perfectly given.[1]
- ↑ Compare, e.g., Rule III., Method, Part II., in the French and Latin.
