We can now see quite clearly: when faced with the cunning deceiver, the meditating subject behaves not at all like a madman ruled by universal error, but like an adversary who is no less cunning and always on the lookout, constantly reasonable, remaining in the position of a master in relation to his fiction: 'I shall resolutely guard against assenting to any falsehoods, so that the deceiver, however cunning or powerful he might be, will be unable to impose on me in the slightest degree.'