92 INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. 



hunt despair. Is it also by art that the work must be 

 adopted. Yet, as far as may be, I shall satisfy thy doubt, 

 and obey thee. That these things are suddenly known, 

 my son, is no wonder. Knowledge is of quick, time of 

 tardy birth. Also the noble things which were invented 

 before these, were not by the light of former knowledge 

 gradually invented, but by chance (as they say) abun 

 dantly. But in things mechanical there is a certain exten 

 sion of what is already invented, which yet deserves not 

 the name of new invention. The way is not long, my son, 

 but ambiguous. Yet when I say that these things have 

 not come to view before this time, hast thou ascertained, 

 how much was known to all antiquity, or in all countries, 

 or even to single individuals. But I almost agree with 

 thee, my son, and will lead thee higher by the hand. 

 Thou doubtest not but that if men had never existed, 

 many of the things which are made by art (as they say) 

 would have been wanting, as marble statues, clothes. But 

 now, and men have not they too their motions which they 

 obey ? Truly, my son, more subtle, and more difficult to 

 comprehend by knowledge, yet equally certain. Indeed, 

 you will say, men obey their will. I hear, but this is 

 nothing. Such a cause as fortune is in the universe, such 

 is the will in man. If any thing therefore is produced yet 

 not without man, and lies also beyond the ways of man, is 

 it not equal to nothing ? Man lights upon certain inven 

 tions which as it were present themselves, others he attains 

 to by foreseeing the end and knowing the means. The 

 knowledge of the means however he derives from things 

 obvious. In which number then shall be placed those 

 inventions which from things obvious receive neither ob 

 vious effect nor method and light of operation? Such 

 works are called Epistemides, or daughters of science, 

 which do not otherwise come, into action than by know 

 ledge and pure interpretation, seeing they contain nothing 

 obvious. But between these and the obvious how many 

 degrees thinkest thou are numbered ? Receive, my son, 

 and seal. 



12. In the last place, my son, I counsel thee, as is espe 

 cially necessary, with an enlightened and sober mind to 

 distinguish the interpretation of things divine and things 

 natural, and not to suffer these in any way to be mingled 

 together. Errors enough there are in this kind. Nothing 

 is learnt here unless by the similitudes of things to each 

 other: which, though they seem most dissimilar, do yet 



