https://github.com/davepinch/pinchy.cc/blob/master/content/topics/works/r/rene-descartes/discourse-on-the-method/translation/part-1/1-8-2.md
It is useful to know something of the manners of different nations, that we may be enabled to form a more correct judgment regarding our own, and be prevented from thinking that everything contrary to our customs is ridiculous and irrational,—a conclusion usually come to by those whose experience has been limited to their own country.
But I believed that I had already given sufficient time to Languages, and likewise to the reading of the writings of the ancients, to their Histories and Fables.