Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences is a philosophical and autobiographical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637. It is best known as the source of the famous quotation "Je pense, donc je suis", which occurs in Part IV of the work. A similar argument, without this precise wording, is found in Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), and a Latin version of the same statement Cogito, ergo sum is found in Principles of Philosophy (1644).
Discourse on the Method
"...the reading of good books is like a conversation with the best men of past centuries–" (Discourse part I, AT p. 5)
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions. A monograph is a treatise on a specialized topic.
Title page of Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687)