Firstly,  never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to

say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more ill my judgment than

what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.

Secondly, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as

might be necessary for its adequate solution.

Thirdly, to conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commencing with objects the simplest and

easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, to the knowledge of

the more complex; aesigning in thought a certain -order even to those objects which in their own

nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and sequence.

And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might

be assured that nothing was omitted.