PREFACE TO THE READER

1

I HAVE already slightly touched upon the questions respecting the existence of God and the nature of the human soul, in the "Discource on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences," published in French in the year 1637; not however, with the design of there treating of them fully, but only, as it were, in passing, that I might learn from the judgement of my readers in what way I should afterward handle them; for these questions appeared to me to be of such moment as to be worthy of being considered more than once, and the path which I follow in discussing them is so little trodden, and so remote from the ordinary route that I thought it would not be expedient to illustrate it at greater length in French, and in a discourse that might be read by all, lest even the more feeble minds should believe that this path might be entered upon by them.

我在我的書《談?wù)_引導(dǎo)理性和在科學(xué)中探尋真理的辦法》（1637年出版）中已經(jīng)提及到了關(guān)于上帝的存在與靈魂的不滅這兩個(gè)問(wèn)題。我在那里提及的目的并不是為了對(duì)這兩個(gè)問(wèn)題做出全面的處理，而只是提供一個(gè)范例，并從讀者們的看法中學(xué)習(xí)到以后我討論這兩個(gè)問(wèn)題的方法。它們對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)顯得如此的重要以至于我覺(jué)得它們應(yīng)該被不止一次地討論，而我討論它們的方式相對(duì)于常用的方法來(lái)說(shuō)又是如此的偏僻遙遠(yuǎn)，所以我覺(jué)得將它們寫在一本用法語(yǔ)寫成的且面向各色大眾的書中并不會(huì)有什么幫助，以防那些平庸的知識(shí)分子們都覺(jué)得他們應(yīng)該效仿于我進(jìn)行論述。

2

But, as in the "Discourse on Method," I had requested all who might find aught meriting censure in my writings, to do me the favor of pointing it out to me, I may state that no objections worthy of remark have been alleged against what I then said on these questions except two, to which I will here briefly reply, before undertaking their more detailed discussion.

在《談方法》里，我曾經(jīng)請(qǐng)求任何發(fā)現(xiàn)我寫的東西之中任何值得指出的錯(cuò)誤的人不吝將其告訴我，可在上帝與靈魂這兩個(gè)問(wèn)題上，只有兩個(gè)反駁是值得注意的。對(duì)于這兩個(gè)反駁，我在著手于進(jìn)行精確的說(shuō)明之前先在這里簡(jiǎn)短地回答一下。