次に，ほかの諸学問については，その原理を哲学から借りているかぎり，これほど脆弱な基礎の上には何も堅固なものが建てられなかったはずだ，と判断した。それらの学問が名誉や利益を約束してくれても，それだけでは学ぶ気は起きなかった。なぜなら，幸いにしてわたしは，暮らしのために学問を職業とせざるをえない境遇にあるとは感じなかったし，キニク派気取りで栄誉をさげすむことを標模するのではないが，名目だけの肩書によってしか得られそうもない栄誉など重んじなかったからだ。そして最後に，悪しき諸学説にいたつては，わたしはすでに十分にその値打ちを見定め，錬金術師の約束にも，占星術師の予言にも，魔術師のまやかしにも，知らないことまで知っていると言いふらす人間どもの手管や広言にも，もうだまされまい，と思っていた。
As to the other Sciences, inasmuch as these
borrow their principles from Philosophy,
I judged that no solid superstructures could
be reared on foundations so infirm; and neither
the honour nor the gain held out by them
was sufficient to determine me to their cultivation:
for I was not, thank Heaven, in a condition
which compelled me to make merchandise of
Science for the bettering of my fortune;
and though I might not profess to scorn glory
as a Cynic, I yet made very slight account
of that honour which I hoped to acquire only
through fictitious titles. And, in fine,
of false Sciences I thought I knew the worth
sufficiently to escape being deceived by
the professions of an alchemist, the predictions
of an astrologer, the impostures of a magician,
or by the artifices and boasting of any of
those who profess to know things of which
they are ignorant.