THE PRODROMUS 



Most Serene Grand Duke:^ 



Travellers into unknown realms frequently find, as they hasten 

 on over rough mountain paths toward a summit city, that it 

 seems very near to them when first they descry it, whereas mani- 

 fold turnings may wear even their hope to weariness. For they 

 behold only the nearest peaks, while the things which are hidden 

 from them by the interposition of those same peaks, whether 

 heights of hills, or depths of valleys, or levels of plains, far and 

 away surpass their guesses; since by flattering themselves they 

 measure the intervening distances by their desire. 

 P. 2.2 So, and not otherwise, is it with those who proceed to true 

 knowledge by way of experiments ; for as soon as certain tokens 

 of the unknown truth have become clear to them, they are of a 

 mind that the entire matter shall be straightway disclosed. 

 And they will never be able to form in advance a due estimate 

 of the time which is necessary for loosing that knotted chain 

 of difficulties which, by coming forth one by one, and from con- 

 cealment, as it were, delay, by the constant interposition of 

 obstacles, them that are hastening toward the end. The begin- 

 ning of the task merely reveals certain common, and commonly 

 known, difficulties, whereas the matters which are comprised in 

 these difficulties — now untruths which must be overthrown, 

 now truths which must be established ; sometimes dark places 

 which must be illumined, and again, unknown facts which must 

 be revealed — shall rarely be disclosed by any one before the 

 clew of his search shall lead him thither. Democritus,' not un- 



1 Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany; see p. 179. 



^The pagination is that of the original publication, which is reproduced in the Berlin Fac- 

 simile (p. 196). 



''Steno doubtless had in mind the proverb recorded by Diogenes Laertius (IX. 72) ; etcij 

 Se ovhlv iSixev iv l3v9S yap ij aX.'^Oem, 'In reality we know naught, for truth lies in a well.' 

 ^vdos, strictly speaking,' denotes the depth of the sea (cf. ^schylus, Prometheus, 432). It is 

 in this sense that Cicero {Academica Prior., ii. 10,32) repeats the proverb: naturam accusa, 

 quae in profunda veritatem, ut ait Democritus, penitus abstruserit, ' Accuse nature, which has 



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