Mathematics Is The Gate And

But Concerning Vision Alone Is A Separate Science Formed Among Philosophers, Namely, Optics, And Not Concerning Any Other Sense ... It Is Possible That Some Other Science May Be More Useful, But No Other Science Has So Much Sweetness And Beauty Of Utility. Therefore It Is The Flower Of The Whole Of Philosophy And Through It, And Not Without It, Can The Other Sciences Be Known.

First, By The Figurations Of Art There Be Made Instruments Of Navigation Without Men To Row Them, As Great Ships To Brooke The Sea, Only With One Man To Steer Them, And They Shall Sail Far More Swiftly Than If They Were Full Of Men; Also Chariots That Shall Move With Unspeakable Force Without Any Living Creature To Stir Them. Likewise An Instrument May Be Made To Fly Withall If One Sits In The Midst Of The Instrument, And Do Turn An Engine, By Which The Wings, Being Artificially Composed, May Beat The Air After The Manner Of A Flying Bird.

No One Really Knew The Sciences Except The Lord Robert, Bishop Of Lincoln, By Reason Of His Length Of Life And Experience, As Well As Of His Studiousness And Zeal. He Knew Mathematics And Perspective, And There Was Nothing Which He Was Unable To Know; And At The Same Time He Was Sufficiently Acquainted With Languages To Be Able To Understand The Saints And The Philosophers And The Wise Men Of Antiquity But His Knowledge Of Languages Was Not Such As To Enable Him To Effect Translations Until The Latter Portion Of His Life.

There Are Two Modes Of Acquiring Knowledge, Namely By Reasoning And Experience. Reasoning Draws A Conclusion And Makes Us Grant The Conclusion, But Does Not Make The Conclusion Certain, Nor Does It Remove Doubt So That The Mind May Rest On The Intuition Of Truth, Unless The Mind Discovers It By The Path Of Experience.

But We Must Here State That We Should Not See Anything If There Were A Vacuum. But This Would Not Be Due To Some Nature Hindering Species, And Resisting It, But Because Of The Lack Of A Nature Suitable For The Multiplication Of Species; For Species Is A Natural Thing, And Therefore Needs A Natural Medium; But In A Vacuum Nature Does Not Exist.