4-12 WOVUM OKOANUM. [BOOK T. 



a goal which they had not determined, nor perform a course 

 which they had neither entered upon, nor adhered to. 



With regard to our presumption, we allow that ii we were &amp;lt;o 

 assume a power of drawing a more perfect straight line or circle 

 than any one else, by superior steadiness oi hand or acuteneeis 

 of eye, it would lead to a comparison of talent; but if one 

 merely assert that he can draw a more perfect line or circle with 

 a ruler or compasses, than another can by his unassisted hand cr 

 eye, he surely cannot be said to boast ot much. Now this 

 applies not only to our first original attempt, but also to those 

 who shall hereafter apply themselves to the pursuit. For our 

 method of discovering the sciences merely levels men s w r its, an&amp;lt;l 

 leaves but little to their superiority, since it achieves everything 

 by the most certain rules and demonstrations. Whence (as W3 

 have often observed), our attempt is to be attributed to fortune 

 rather than talent, and is the offspring of time rather than of 

 wit. For a certain sort of chance has no less effect upon ou * 

 thoughts than on our acts and deeds. 



CXXIII. We may, therefore, apply to ourselves the joke of 

 him who said, that water and wine drinkers could not think alike,- 

 especially as it hits the matter so well. For others, botl. 

 ancients and moderns, have in the sciences drank a crude liquor 

 like water, either flowing of itself from the understanding, or 

 drawn up by logic as the wheel draws up the bucket. But we 

 drink and pledge others with a liquor made of many well 

 ripened grapes, collected and plucked from particular branches, 

 squeezed in the press, and at last clarified and fermented in 

 a vessel. It is not, therefore, wonderful that we should not 

 agree with others. 



CXXIY. Another objection will without doubt be made, 

 namely, that we have not ourselves established a correct, or the 

 best goal or aim of the sciences (the very defect we blame in 

 others). For they will say that the contemplation of truth is 

 more dignified and exalted than any utility or extent of effects ; 

 but that our dwelling so long and anxiously on experience and 

 matter, and the fluctuating state of particulars, fastens the mind 

 to earth, or rather casts it down into an abyss of confusion and 

 disturbance, and separates and removes it from a much more 

 divine state, the quiet and tranquillity of abstract wisdom. We 

 willingly assent to their reasoning, and are most anxious to effect 

 the very point they hint at and require. For we are founding 

 a real model of the world in the understanding, such as it is 

 found to be, not such as man s reason has distorted. Now this 

 cannot be done without dissecting and anatomizing the world 



* The saying of Philocrates when he differed from Demosthenes, &amp;lt;L 



