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.

我在我的书《谈正确引导理性和在科学中探寻真理的办法》（1637年出版）中已经提及到了关于上帝的存在与灵魂的不灭这两个问题。我在那里提及的目的并不是为了对这两个问题做出全面的处理，而只是提供一个范例，并从读者们的看法中学习到以后我讨论这两个问题的方法。它们对我来说显得如此的重要以至于我觉得它们应该被不止一次地讨论，而我讨论它们的方式相对于常用的方法来说又是如此的偏僻遥远，所以我觉得将它们写在一本用法语写成的且面向各色大众的书中并不会有什么帮助，以防那些平庸的知识分子们都觉得他们应该效仿于我进行论述。

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《谈方法》里，我曾经请求任何发现我写的东西之中任何值得指出的错误的人不吝将其告诉我，可在上帝与灵魂这两个问题上，只有两个反驳是值得注意的。对于这两个反驳，我在着手于进行精确的说明之前先在这里简短地回答一下。