Pillar of humility

[leafofgrass]

I would also have added a word of advice concerning the way to read this book, which is that I would like it first to be read rapidly in its entirety, like a novel, without the reader forcing his attention too much or stopping at the difficulties which he mat encounter in it simple in order to have a broad view of the matters which I have treated in it. And after that, if the reader judges that these matters merit examination, and is curious to know their causes; he can read the book a second time, in order to notice the sequence of my reasonings. But again, he must not be discouraged if he cannot everywhere sufficiently follow the sequence or does not understand all my reasonings; it is only necessary to indicate with the stroke of a pen the places in which one finds some difficulty, and to continue to read to the end without interruption. If one then takes up the book for a third time, I dare to believe that one will find in it the solution to most of the difficulties which one previously marked; and that if some still remain, one will finally find the solution to them but re-reading.
--René Descartes, Principles of Philosophy