“ When a person has any real taste for the sciences, the first thing he perceives in the pursuit of them is that connection by which they mutually attract, assist, and enlighten each other, and that it is impossible to attain one without the assistance of the rest. ”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions (1782). copy citation
| Author | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
|---|---|
| Source | Confessions |
| Topic | science connection |
| Date | 1782 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Samuel William Orson |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Confessions_(Rousseau) |
Context
“I was so attached to this ridiculous method, that I lost a prodigious deal of time and had bewildered my head to such a degree, that I was hardly capable of doing, seeing or comprehending anything. I fortunately perceived, at length, that I was in the wrong road, which would entangle me in an inextricable labyrinth, and quitted it before I was irrevocably lost.
When a person has any real taste for the sciences, the first thing he perceives in the pursuit of them is that connection by which they mutually attract, assist, and enlighten each other, and that it is impossible to attain one without the assistance of the rest. Though the human understanding cannot grasp all, and one must ever be regarded as the principal object, yet if the rest are totally neglected, the favorite study is generally obscure; I was convinced that my resolution to improve was good and useful in itself, but that it was necessary I should change my method;”
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