| I will not hesitate, however, to avow my belief that it has been my singular good fortune to have very early in life fallen in with certain tracks which have conducted me to considerations and maxims, |
| だが遠慮なく言おう。わたしは若いときから，わたしを考察と格率へ導いたある道に踏み入る多大な幸運に恵まれたと思う。 |
| of which I have formed a Method that gives me the means, |
| それらの考察と格率によって一つの方法をつくりあげたのである。 |
| as I think, of gradually augmenting my knowledge, and of raising it by little and little to the highest point which the mediocrity of my talents and the brief duration of my life will permit me to reach. |
| そしてこの方法によって，自分の知識をだんだんに増やし，わたしの人並みの精神と短い生の達しうる最高点にまで少しずつ知識を高める手立てがあると思われた。 |
| For I have already reaped from it such fruits that, although I have been accustomed to think lowly enough of myself, and although when I look with the eye of a philosopher at the varied courses and pursuits of mankind at large, |
| というのも，その方法からすでに多大の成果を収めてきたので，自分を判断する場合，いつも，自惚れるより疑心を抱くほうであり，また哲学者の眼で万人のさまざまな行為や企てを眺めると，ほとんどが無益で無用だと見えるものの， |
| I find scarcely one which does not appear vain and useless, I nevertheless derive the highest satisfaction from the progress I conceive myself to have already made in the search after truth, and cannot help entertaining such expectations of the future as to believe that if, |
| それでもわたしは，真理の探究においてすでに成しとげたと思う進歩に非常な満足感をおぼえずにはいられないし，未来にたいしても大きな希望を抱かずにはいられない。 |
| among the occupations of men as men, there is any one really excellent and important, it is that which I have chosen. |
| 人間の職業，純粋に人間としてなせる職業のうちに，たしかに優れた重要なものが何か一つでもあるとすれば，それこそわたしが選んだ仕事だと，信じたいほどである。 |