[…] many people either do not reflect on the precept at all, or ignore it altogether, or presume not to need it. Consequently, they often investigate the most difficult questions with little regard to order, that, to my mind, they act like a man who should attempt to leap with one bound from the base to the summit of a house, either making no account of the ladders provided for his ascent or not noticing them. It is thus that all Astrologers behave, who, though in ignorance of the nature of the heavens, and even without having made proper observations of the movements of the heavenly bodies, expect to be able to indicate their effects. This is also what many do who study Mechanics apart from Physics, and rashly set about devising new instruments for producing motion. Along with them go also those Philosophers who, neglecting experience, imagine that truth will spring from their brain like Pallas from the head of Zeus. […]
RENÉ DESCARTES. Rule V. p. 7–8. In: Rules for the direction of the Mind. Tradução de ELIZABETH S. HALDANE e G. R. T. ROSS. p. 1–40. In: WILLIAM BENTON. Descartes Spinoza. v. 31. In: ROBERT MAYNARD HUTCHINS. Great Books of the western world. Chicago, London, Toronto: Encyclopædia Britannica: 1952.
Malebria 