その頃わたしはドイツにいた。いまなお終わっていない戦争がきっかけで，呼び寄せられたのだ。皇帝の戴冠式から軍隊にもどろうとしたとき，冬が始まって，ある冬営地に足留めされた。そこでは気を散らす付き合いもなく，またさいわい，心を乱す心配事や情念もなかったので，わたしは終日ひとり炉部屋に閉じこもり，心ゆくまで思索にふけっていた。それらの思索の，最初の一つは，次のことを考えてみようと思いついたことだ。たくさんの部品を寄せ集めて作り，いろいろな親方の手を通ってきた作品は，多くの場合，一人だけで苦労して仕上げた作品ほどの完成度が見られない。たとえばよくあることだが，一人の建築家が請け負って作りあげた建物は，何人もの建築家が，もともと別の目的で建てられていた古い壁を生かしながら修復にっとめた建物よりも，壮麗で整然としている。同じく，はじめは城壁のある村落にすぎなかったのが時とともに大都市に発達していった古い町は，一人の技師が思い通りに平原に線引きした規則正しい城塞都市にくらべると，ふつうひどく不揃いだ。そうした古い町の建物を一つ一つ切り離して見ればたいてい，ほかの町の建物と同じかそれ以上の技巧が見いだされはするけれど，建物がここに大きいの，あそこに小さいのと立ち並んで，通りが曲がりくねった高低の多いものになっており，それを見ると，こんなふうに配置したのは，理性を具えた人間の意志ではなく，むしろ偶然なのだ，と言いたくなるほどである。だがいつの時代にも，役人たちが私人の建物を公共の美観に資するよう管理に務めてきたのを考えると，他人の作ったものを基にしてだけでは，完成度の高いものを作りだすのが難しい，とよくわかるだろう。またわたしは次のことも思い描いてみた。半ば禾開だつたむかし，わずかずつ文明化してきて，犯罪や紛争が起こるたびにただ不都合に迫られて法律をつくってきた民族は，集まった最初から，だれか一人の賢明な立法者の定めた基本法を守ってきた民族ほどには，うまく統治されないだろう，と。同様に，唯一の神が徒を定めた真の宗教の在り方は，他のすべてと，比較にならぬほどよく秩序づけられているはずなのは確かである。そして人間界のことでは，わたしの恩うところ，むかしスパルタが隆盛をきわめたのは，その法律の一つ一つが良かったためではない。というのは，ひどく奇妙な法律や，良俗に反する法律さえも多かったからだ。そうではなく，それらの法律がただ一人によって創案され，そのすべてが同一の目的に向かっていたからである。またわたしはこう考えた。書物の学問，少なくともその論拠が蓋然的なだけで何の証明もなく，多くの異なった人びとの意見が寄せ集められて，しだいにかさを増やしてきたような学問は，一人の良識ある人間が目の前にあることについて自然〔生まれながら〕になしうる単純な推論ほどには，真理に接近できない，と。同じように，さらにこう考えた。われわれはみな，大人になる前は子供だったのであり，いろいろな欲求や教師たちに長いこと引き回されねばならなかった。しかもそれらの欲求や教師は，しばしば互いに矛盾し，またどちらもおそらく，つねに最善のことを教えてくれたのではない。したがってわれわれの判断力が，生まれた瞬間から理性を完全に働かせ，理性のみによって導かれていた場合ほどに純粋で堅固なものであることは不可能に近い，と。
I WAS then in Germany, attracted thither
by the wars in that country, which have not
yet been brought to a termination; and as
I was returning to the army from the coronation
of the Emperor, the setting in of winter
arrested me in a locality where, as I found
no society to interest me, and was besides
fortunately undisturbed by any cares or passions,
I remained the whole day in seclusion, 1
with full opportunity to occupy my attention
with my own thoughts. Of these one of the
very first that occurred to me was, that
there is seldom so much perfection in works
composed of many separate parts, upon which
different hands have been employed, as in
those completed by a single master. Thus,
it is observable that the buildings which
a single architect has planned and executed,
are generally more elegant and commodious
than those which several have attempted to
improve, by making old walls serve for purposes
for which they were not originally built.
Thus also, those ancient cities which, from
being at first only villages, have become,
in course of time, large towns, are usually
but ill-laid out compared with the regularly
constructed towns which a professional architect
has freely planned on an open plain; so that
although the several buildings of the former
may often equal or surpass in beauty those
of the latter, yet when one observes their
indiscriminate juxtaposition, there a large
one and here a small, and the consequent
crookedness and irregularity of the streets,
one is disposed to allege that chance rather
than any human will guided by reason, must
have led to such an arrangement. And if we
consider that nevertheless there have been
at all times certain officers whose duty
it was to see that private buildings contributed
to public ornament, the difficulty of reaching
high perfection with but the materials of
others to operate on, will be readily acknowledged.
In the same way I fancied that those nations
which, starting from a semi-barbarous state
and advancing to civilisation by slow degrees,
have had their laws successively determined,
and, as it were forced upon them simply by
experience of the hurtfulness of particular
crimes and disputes, would by this process
come to be possessed of less perfect institutions
than those which, from the commencement of
their association as communities, have followed
the appointments of some wise legislator.
It is thus quite certain that the constitution
of the true religion, the ordinances of which
are derived from God, must be incomparably
superior to that of every other. And, to
speak of human affairs, I believe that the
past preeminence of Sparta was due not to
the goodness of each of its laws in particular,
for many of these were very strange, and
even opposed to good morals, but to the circumstance
that, originated by a single individual,
they all tended to a single end. In the same
way I thought that the sciences contained
in books, (such of them at least as are made
up of probable reasonings, without demonstrations,)
composed as they are of the opinions of many
different individuals massed together, are
farther removed from truth than the simple
inferences which a man of good sense using
his natural and unprejudiced judgment draws
respecting the matters of his experience.
And because we have all to pass through a
state of infancy to manhood, and have been
of necessity, for a length of time, governed
by our desires and preceptors, (whose dictates
were frequently conflicting, while neither
perhaps always counselled us for the best,)
I further concluded that it is almost impossible
that our judgments can be so correct or solid
as they would have been, had our Reason been
mature from the moment of our birth, and
had we always been guided by it alone.