In that remote period men will be able to judge without prejudice the comparative merits of Sophocles and Corneille.
Unreasonable admiration for the ancients is one of the chief obstacles to progress (le progres des choses).

Philosophy not only did not advance, but even fell into an abyss of unintelligible ideas, because, through devotion to the authority of Aristotle, men sought truth in his enigmatic writings instead of seeking it in nature.

If the authority of Descartes were ever to have the same fortune, the results would be no less disastrous.
7.
This memorable brochure exhibits, without pedantry, perspicuous arrangement and the "geometrical" precision on which Fontenelle remarked as one of the notes of the new epoch introduced by Descartes.

It displays too the author's open-mindedness, and his readiness to follow where the argument leads.

He is able already to look beyond Cartesianism; he knows that it cannot be final.