If a person examined with care all of the rare qualities of spirit and soul that are necessary to judge, feel and appreciate good verses; the tact, the delicacy of organs, of ear and of intelligence, etc., he would be convinced that despite the pretentions of all classes of society for judging the charm of works, poets have even fewer true judges than geometers. Poets who count the public for nothing and only work for connoisseurs would do with their works what the famous mathematician Viete did with his in an age when the study of mathematics was less widespread than today. He only made a few copies and distributed them to people who could understand and enjoy them, or be helped by them. As for others, he didn't think about them. But Viete was rich and most poets are poor. Then a geometer has perhaps less vanity than a poet; or if he has as much, he can calculate the extent of it better.