BOOK II - THE PRINCIPLES OF THIS SCIENCE CONCERNING IDEAS

Summary

[Introduction]

44. In our quest, therefore, to discover this first world of gentile nations, of which we have hitherto had no knowledge and can form no idea from the world known to us, we now propose the following principles divided into two classes: ideas and language. And just as spirit governs each and every part of the body, these principles, singly or in numbers, sub-divided or in groups, directly or through their consequences, in parts or as a whole, inform and establish this Science as a system, to be comprehended either in its entirety or in its parts, down to the smallest sub-divisions of which it is composed. Accordingly, it will become possible to understand, one by one, all the things that we have already set forth, as well as many others which, given the opportunity, we shall set forth below, even to the point of locating them in the confused forests of the dictionary, and to do so without suffering the discomforts of attention that arise from the need to follow works that are either laborious in method or lacking in any method whatsoever, provided that the things considered in this book are studied in the exact order in which it is written. We make the one proviso that, when confirming our principles through their effects, we shall adduce as examples one, two or, at most, three effects appropriate to each principle, in order that the principles be understood as a system.