And to one who
has thus resolved upon a general doubt, there appear no marks by
which he can with certainty distinguish sleep from the waking state.
V. Why we may also doubt of mathematical demonstrations.
We will also doubt of the other things we have before held as most
certain, even of the demonstrations of mathematics, and of their
principles which we have hitherto deemed self-evident; in the first
place, because we have sometimes seen men fall into error in such
matters, and admit as absolutely certain and self evident what to us
appeared false, but chiefly because we have learnt that God who
created us is all-powerful; for we do not yet know whether perhaps
it was his will to create us so that we are always deceived, even in
the things we think we know best: since this does not appear more
impossible than our being occasionally deceived, which, however, as
observation teaches us, is the case. And if we suppose that an all-
powerful God is not the author of our being, and that we exist of
ourselves or by some other means, still, the less powerful we
suppose our author to be, the greater reason will we have for
believing that we are not so perfect as that we may not be
continually deceived.
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