こうした理由でわたしは，あの騒々しくて落ち着きのない気質の人たちをけっして容認できないのだ。かれらは，生まれからも社会的地位からも，公事を扱うよう要請されてもいないのに，いつも何か新しい改革を頭のなかで描かずにはいられない。もしもこの著作のなかで，こうした愚かさがわたしにあると少しでも疑われると考えたら，本書の公刊を黙認できなかったと思う。わたしの計画は，自分の思想を改革しようと努め，わたしだけのものである土地に建設することであり，それより先へ広がったことは一度もない。自分の仕事が十分気に入って，ここでその見本をお目にかけるといっても，だからといって，これを真似ることをすすめたいのではない。神からもっとゆたかな恩寵を分け与えられた人は，一段と高尚な計画を抱くことだろう。しかしわたしのこの計画だけでもすでに，多くの人たちにとって大胆すぎるのではないかと，大いに危倶している。かつて信じて受け入れた意見をすべて捨て去る決意だけでも，だれもが従うべき範例ではない。そして世のなかは，この範例にまったく適しない二種の精神の持ち主だけから成り立っているようである。第一は，自分を実際以上に有能だと信じて性急に自分の判断をくださずにはいられず，自分の思考すべてを秩序だてて導いていくだけの忍耐心を持ち得ない人たち。したがってかれらは，ひとたび，受け入れてきた諸原理を疑い，常道から離れる自由を手に入れるや，まつすぐ進むために取るべき小道をたどることはできないで，一生さまよいつづける。第二は，真と偽とを区別する能力が他の人より劣っていて，自分たちはその人たちに教えてもらえると判断するだけの理性と慎ましさがあり，もっとすぐれた意見を自らは探求しないで，むしろ，そうした他人の意見に従うことで満足してしまう人たちである。
Hence it is that I cannot in any way degree
approve of those restless and busy meddlers
who, called neither by birth nor fortune
to take part in the management of public
affairs, are yet always projecting reforms;
and if I thought that this Tract contained
aught which might justify the suspicion that
I was a victim of such folly, I would by
no means permit its publication. I have never
contemplated anything higher than the reformation
of my own opinions, and basing them on a
foundation wholly my own. And although my
own satisfaction with my work has led me
to present here a draft of it, I do not by
any means therefore recommend to every one
else to make a similar attempt. Those whom
God has endowed with a larger measure of
genius will entertain, perhaps, designs still
more exalted; but for the many I am much
afraid lest even the present undertaking
be more than they can safely venture to imitate.
The single design to strip one’s self of
all past beliefs is one that ought not to
be taken by every one. The majority of men
is composed of two classes, for neither of
which would this be at all a befitting resolution:
in the first place, of those who with more
than a due confidence in their own powers,
are precipitate in their judgments and want
the patience requisite for orderly and circumspect
thinking; whence it happens, that if men
of this class once take the liberty to doubt
of their accustomed opinions, and quit the
beaten highway, they will never be able to
thread the byeway that would lead them by
a shorter course, and will lose themselves
and continue to wander for life; in the second
place, of those who, possessed of sufficient
sense or modesty to determine that there
are others who excel them in the power of
discriminating between truth and error, and
by whom they may be instructed, ought rather
to content themselves with the opinions of
such than trust for more correct to their
own Reason.