{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29904/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29904","id":"gutenberg_29904","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29904","summary":null,"tags":["Aesthetics","Category: Art","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Life","Science"],"text":"Produced by Al Haines\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE HUMANISTS' LIBRARY\n\nEdited by Lewis Einstein\n\nI\n\n\nLEONARDO DA VINCI\n\nTHOUGHTS\n\nON ART AND LIFE\n\n\n\n\nTHOUGHTS\n\nON\n\nART AND LIFE\n\n\nBY\n\nLEONARDO DA VINCI\n\n\nTranslated\n\nby\n\nMAURICE BARING\n\n\n\n\nBoston\n\nThe Merrymount Press\n\n1906\n\n\n\n\nCopyright, 1906, by D. B. Updike\n\n\n\n\nA TABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n      Introduction                             ix\n   I. Thoughts on Life                          3\n  II. Thoughts on Art                          59\n III. Thoughts on Science                     141\n  IV. Bibliographical Note                    193\n   V. Table of References                     194\n\n\n\n\n{ix}\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n    * *\n     *\n\nThe long obscurity of the Dark Ages lifted over Italy, awakening to a\nnational though a divided consciousness.  Already two distinct\ntendencies were apparent.  The practical and rational, on the one hand,\nwas soon to be outwardly reflected in the burgher-life of Florence and\nthe Lombard cities, while at Rome it had even then created the civil\norganization of the curia.  The novella was its literary triumph.  In\nart it expressed itself simply, directly and with vigour.  Opposed to\nthis was the other great undercurrent in Italian life, mystical,\nreligious and speculative, which had run through the nation from the\nearliest times, and received fresh volume from mediaeval Christianity,\nencouraging ecstatic mysticism to drive to frenzy the population of its\nmountain cities.  Umbrian painting is inspired by it, and the glowing\nwords of Jacopone da Todi expressed in poetry the same religious\nfervour which the life of Florence and Perugia bore witness to in\naction.\n\nItaly developed out of the relation and conflict of these two forces\nthe rational with the mystical.  Their later union in the greater men\nwas to {x} form the art temperament of the Renaissance.  The practical\nside gave it the firm foundation of rationalism and reality on which it\nrested; the mystical guided its endeavour to picture the unreal in\nterms of ideal beauty.\n\nThe first offspring of this union was Leonardo.  Since the decay of\nancient art no painter had been able to fully express the human form,\nfor imperfect mastery of technique still proved the barrier.  Leonardo\nwas the first completely to disengage his personality from its\nconstraint, and make line express thought as none before him could do.\nNor was this his only triumph, but rather the foundation on which\nfurther achievement rested.  Remarkable as a thinker alone, he\npreferred to enlist thought in the service of art, and make art the\nhandmaid of beauty.  Leonardo saw the world not as it is, but as he\nhimself was.  He viewed it through the atmosphere of beauty which\nfilled his mind, and tinged its shadows with the mystery of his nature.\nTo all this, his birthright as a painter, a different element was\nadded.  A keen desire for knowledge, guiding his action in life,\nspurred him onward.  Conscious of this dominant impulse, he has\nfancifully described himself in a Platonic allegory.  He had passed\nbeneath overhanging cliffs on his way to a great cavern.  On bended\nknees, peering through its darkness, fear and desire had overwhelmed\nhim,--fear for the menacing darkness of the cavern; and desire {xi} to\nascertain if there were wonders therein.\n\nFrom his earliest years, the elements of greatness were present in\nLeonardo.  But the maturity of his genius came unaffected from without.\nHe barely noticed the great forces of the age which in life he\nencountered.  After the first promise of his boyhood in the Tuscan\nhills, his youth at Florence had been spent under Verrocchio as a\nmaster, in company with those whose names were later to brighten the\npages of Italian art.  He must then have heard Savonarola's impassioned\nsermons, yet, unlike Botticelli, remained dumb to his entreaties.  He\nmust have seen Lorenzo the Magnificent.  But there was little opening\nin the Medicean circle for the young painter, who had first to gain\nfame abroad.  The splendour of Milan under Il Moro, then the most\nbrilliant court in Europe, attracted him.  He went there, proclaiming\nhis ability, in a remarkable letter, to accomplish much, but desiring\nchiefly to erect a great monument to the glory of the Sforza.  He spent\nyears at that court, taken up by his different ventures,--painting,\nsculpture, engineering, even arranging festivities--but his greater\nproject was doomed to failure, enmeshed in the downfall of Ludovico.\nEven to this he remained impassive.  \"Visconti dragged to prison, his\nson dead, ... the duke has lost his state, his possessions, his\nliberty, and has finished nothing he undertook,\" was his only comment\non his patron's end, written on the {xii} margin of a manuscript.\nAfter the overthrow of the Duke of Milan, began his Italian wanderings.\nAt one time he contemplated entering the service of an Oriental prince.\nInstead, he entered that of Caesar Borgia, as military engineer, and\nthe greatest painter of the age became inspector of a despot's\nstrongholds.  But his restless nature did not leave him long at this.\nReturning to Florence he competed with Michelangelo; yet the service of\neven his native city could not retain him.  His fame had attracted the\nattention of a new patron of the arts, prince of the state which had\nconquered his first master.  In this his last venture, he forsook\nItaly, only to die three years later at Amboise, in the castle of the\nFrench king.\n\nThe inner nature of Leonardo remained as untouched by the men he\nencountered as by the events which were then stirring Europe.  Alone,\nhe influenced others, remaining the while a mystery to all.  The most\ngifted of nations failed to understand the greatest of her sons.\nIsabella d'Este, the first lady of her time, seeking vainly to obtain\nsome product of his brush, was told that his life was changeful and\nuncertain, that he lived for the day, intent only on his art.  His own\nthoughts reveal him in another light.  \"I wish to work miracles,\" he\nwrote.  And elsewhere he exclaimed, \"Thou, O God, sellest us all\nbenefits, at the cost of our toil....  As a day well spent makes sleep\n{xiii} seem pleasant, so a life well employed makes death pleasant.  A\nlife well spent is long.\"\n\n\nLeonardo's views of aesthetic are all important in his philosophy of\nlife and art.  The worker's thoughts on his craft are always of\ninterest.  They are doubly so when there is in them no trace of\nliterary self-consciousness to blemish their expression.  He recorded\nthese thoughts at the instant of their birth, for a constant habit of\nobservation and analysis had early developed with him into a second\nnature.  His ideas were penned in the same fragmentary way as they\npresented themselves to his mind, perhaps with no intention of\npublishing them to the world.  But his ideal of art depended\nintimately, none the less, on the system he had thrown out seemingly in\nso haphazard a manner.  His method gives to his writings their only\nunity.  It was more than a method: it was a permanent expression of his\nown life, which aided him to construct a philosophy of beauty\ncharacteristic of the new age.\n\nHe had searched to find a scientific basis for art, and discovered it\nin the imitation of nature, based on rational experience.  This idea\nwas, in part, Aristotelian, imbibed with the spirit of the time; though\nin the ordinary acceptance of the word Leonardo was no scholar, least\nof all a humanist.  His own innovation in aesthetic was in requiring a\nrational and critical experience as a necessary {xiv} foundation, the\nacquisition of which was to result from the permanent condition of the\nmind.  He had trained his own faculties to critically observe all\nnatural phenomena: first try by experience, and then demonstrate why\nsuch experiment is forced to operate in the way it does, was his\nadvice.  The eye, he gave as an instance, had been defined as one\nthing; by experience, he had found it to be another.\n\nBut by imitation in art, Leonardo intended no slavish reproduction of\nnature.  When he wrote that \"the painter strives and competes with\nnature,\" he was on the track of a more Aristotelian idea.  This he\nbarely developed, using nature only partly in the Stagirite's sense, of\ninner force outwardly exemplified.  The idea of imitation, in fad, as\nit presented itself to his mind, was two-fold.  It was not merely the\nexternal reproduction of the image, which was easy enough to secure.\nThe real difficulty of the artist lay in reflecting inner character and\npersonality.  It was Leonardo's firm conviction that each thought had\nsome outward expression by which the trained observer was able to\nrecognize it.  Every man, he wrote, has as many movements of the body\nas of varieties of ideas.  Thought, moreover, expressed itself\noutwardly in proportion to its power over the individual and his time\nof life.  By thus employing bodily gesture to represent feeling and\nidea, the painter could affect the spectator whom he {xv} placed in the\npresence of visible emotion.  He maintained that art was of slight use\nunless able to show what its subject had in mind.  Painting should aim,\ntherefore, to reproduce the inner mental state by the attitude assumed.\nThis was, in other words, a natural symbolism, in which the symbol was\nno mere convention, but the actual outward projection of the inner\ncondition of the mind.  Art here offered an equation of inward purpose\nand outward expression, neither complete without the other.\n\nFurther than this, influenced by Platonic thought, Leonardo's\nconception of painting was, as an intellectual state or condition,\noutwardly projected.  The painter who practised his art without\nreasoning of its nature was like a mirror unconsciously reflecting what\nwas before it.  Although without a \"manual act\" painting could not be\nrealized, its true problems--problems of light, of colour, pose and\ncomposition, of primitive and derivative shadow--had all to be grasped\nby the mind without bodily labour.  Beyond this, the scientific\nfoundation in art came through making it rest upon an accurate\nknowledge of nature.  Even experience was only a step towards attaining\nthis.  \"There is nothing in all nature without its reason,\" he wrote.\n\"If you know the reason, you do not need the experience.\"\n\nIn the history of art, as well, he urged that nature had been the test\nof its excellence.  A {xvi} natural phenomenon had brought art into\nexistence.  The first picture in the world, he remarked in a happy\nepigram, had been \"a line surrounding the shadow of a man, cast by the\nsun on the wall.\"  He traced the history of painting in Italy during\nits stagnation after the decay of ancient art, when each painter copied\nonly his predecessor, which lasted until Giotto, born among barren\nmountains, drew the movements of the goats he tended, and thus advanced\nfarther than all the earlier masters.  But his successors only copied\nhim, and painting sank again until Masaccio once more took nature as\nhis guide.\n\nA quite different and combative side to Leonardo's aesthetic, which\nforced him to state the broad principles of art, appears in his attacks\non poetry and music as inferior to painting.  In that age of humanistic\ntriumph, literature had lorded it over the other arts in a manner not\nfree from arrogance.  There was still another cause for his onslaught\non poetry.  Leonardo resented the fact that painters, who were rarely\nmen of education, had not defended themselves against the slurs cast on\ntheir art.  His counter attack may have been intended to hide his own\nsmall scholarship.  It served another end as well.  His conception of\nthe universal principles of beauty was made clear by this defence.  His\nfirst principle stated broadly that the most useful art was the one\nwhich could most easily be communicated.  {xvii} Painting was\ncommunicable to all since its appeal was made to the eye.  While the\npainter proceeded at once to the imitation of nature, the poet's\ninstruments were words which varied in every land.  He took the\nPlatonic view of poetry as a lying imitation, removed from truth.  He\ncalled the poet a collector of other men's wares, who decked himself in\ntheir plumage.  Where poetry presented only a shadow to the\nimagination, painting offered a real image to the eye; and the eye, as\nthe window of the soul through which all earthly beauty was revealed,\nthe sight, he exclaimed, which had discovered navigation, which had\nimpelled men to seek the West, was the noblest of all the senses.\nPainting spoke only by what it accomplished, poetry ended in the very\nwords with which it sang its own praises.  If, then, poets called\npainting dumb poetry, he could retort by dubbing poetry blind painting.\nIn common with his successors, Leonardo could not escape from this\nfallacy, which, in overlooking all save descriptive verse, was destined\nto burden aesthetic until demolished by Lessing.\n\nIt was the opinion of Leonardo that the temporary nature of music\ncaused its inferiority to painting.  Although durability was in itself\nno absolute test,--else the work of coppersmiths would be the highest\nart,--yet in any final scale, permanence could not altogether be\ndisregarded.  Music perished in the very act of its creation, {xviii}\nwhile painting preserved the beautiful from the hand of time.  \"Helen\nof Troy, gazing in a mirror, in her old age, wondered how she had twice\nbeen ravished.\"  Mortal beauty would thus vanish, if it were not\nrescued by art from destroying age and death.\n\nLeonardo contrasted painting with sculpture, for he had practised both,\nand thought himself peculiarly qualified to judge their merit.  He\nconsidered the former the nobler art of the two, for sculpture involved\nbodily toil and fatigue, while by its very nature it lacked perspective\nand atmosphere, colour, and the feeling of space.  Painting, on the\nother hand, caused by an illusion, was in itself the result of deeper\nthought.  An even broader test served to convince him of its final\nsuperiority.  That art was of highest excellence, he wrote, which\npossessed most elements of variety and universality.  Painting\ncontained and reproduced all forms of nature; it made its appeal by the\nharmonious balance of parts which gratified all the senses.  By its\nvery duality it fulfilled the highest purpose.  The painter was able to\nvisualize the beauty which enchanted him, to bring to reality the fancy\nof his dreams, and give outward expression to the ideal within.\n\nThe genius of Leonardo as a painter came through unfolding the mystery\nof life.  Like Miranda, he had gazed with wonder at the beauty of the\nworld.  \"Look at the grace and sweetness {xix} of men and women in the\nstreet,\" he wrote.  The most ordinary functions of life and nature\namazed him most.  He observed of the eye how in it form and colour, and\nthe entire universe it reflected, were reduced to a single point.\n\"Wonderful law of nature, which forced all effects to participate with\ntheir cause in the mind of man.  These are the true miracles!\"\nElsewhere he wrote again: \"Nature is full of infinite reasons which\nhave not yet passed into experience.\"  He conceived it to be the\npainter's duty not only to comment on natural phenomena as restrained\nby law, but to merge his very mind into that of nature by interpreting\nits relation with art.  Resting securely on the reality of experienced\ntruth, he felt the deeper presence of the unreal on every side.  In the\nsame way that he visualized the inner workings of the mind, his keen\nimagination aided him to make outward trifles serve his desire to find\nmysterious beauty everywhere.  Oftentimes, in gazing on some ancient,\ntime-stained wall, he describes how he would trace thereon landscapes,\nwith mountains, rivers and valleys.  The whole world was full of a\nmystery to him, which his work reflected.  The smile of consciousness,\npregnant of that which is beyond, illumines the expression of Mona\nLisa.  So, too, in the strange glance of Ann, of John the Baptist, and\nof the Virgin of the Rocks, one realizes that their thoughts dwell in\nanother world.\n\n{xx}\n\nLeonardo had found a refuge in art from the pettiness of material\nenvironment.  Like his own creations, he, too, had learned the secret\nof the inner life.  The painter, he wrote, could create a world of his\nown, and take refuge in this new realm.  But it must not be one of\nshadows only.  The very mystery he felt so keenly had yet to rest on a\nreal foundation; to treat it otherwise would be to plunge into mere\nvapouring.  Although attempting to bridge the gulf which separated the\nreal from the unreal, he refused to treat the latter supernaturally.\nThat mystery which lesser minds found in the occult, he saw in nature\nall about him.  He denied the existence of spirits, just as he urged\nthe foolishness of the will-o'-the-wisps of former ages,--alchemy and\nthe black art.  In one sentence he destroyed the pretensions of\npalmistry.  \"You will see,\" he wrote, \"great armies slaughtered in an\nhour's time, where in each individual the signs of the hands are\ndifferent.\"\n\nHis art took, thus, its guidance in realism, its purpose in\nspirituality.  The search for truth and the desire for beauty were the\ntwin ideals he strove to attain.  The keenness of this pursuit saved\nhim from the blemish of egoism which aloofness from his surroundings\nwould otherwise have forced upon him.  For his character presented the\nanomaly, peculiar to the Renaissance, of a lofty idealism coupled in\naction with {xxi} irresponsibility of duty.  He stood on a higher\nplane, his attitude toward life recognizing no claims on the part of\nhis fellowmen.  In his desire to surpass himself, fostered by this\nisolation of spirit and spurred on by the eager wish to attain\nuniversal knowledge, he has been compared to Faust; but the likeness is\nonly half correct.  He was not blind to the limitations which\nencompassed him, his very genius making him realize their bounds.  Of\nthe ancients he said that in attempting to define the nature of the\nsoul, they sought the impossible.  He wrote elsewhere, \"It is the\ninfinite alone that cannot be attained, for if it could it would become\nfinite.\"\n\nIn Leonardo's personality was reflected both the strength and weakness\nof Renaissance Italy.  So, to know him, it is necessary to understand\nthe Italy of that age.  Its brilliancy, its universality, its desire\nfor beauty, are but one side of the medal.  On its reverse, Italy\nlacked the solid vigour of a national purpose.  The discord of\npolitical disunion, reacting on art, laid bare great weakness in the\nwant of any constructive direction, toward which the strength of the\nRenaissance could aim.  The energy was there, whether finding an outlet\nin statecraft or in discovery, in art or in letters.  But it laboured\nfor no common end; there was internal unity of force and method, but\nexternal divergence of purpose.  The tyranny of petty despots could\nprovide no adequate ideal toward {xxii} which to aim.  No ruler, and no\ncity save Venice, could long symbolize the nation's patriotism.\nVenetian painters alone glorified the state in their work, and thus\nfelt the living force of a national ambition which raised them above\nthemselves.  But elsewhere there was little to inspire that devotion\nfor a common country necessary as a background to sustain the greatest\nwork.  Hence Italian art, so living within certain limits, remained\nstunted beyond these.  The conviction that art existed in order to\nexpress ideal beauty, that its main purpose was to please the eye and\nthe senses in spite of the result attained, proved inadequate\ncompensation for all that had been withdrawn.  The art ideal tended\nmore and more to become a conscience and a purpose in itself, an inward\nimpulse for action and an outward goal.\n\n\nThe artist's real greatness will depend at all times on his qualities\nas a representative.  His true merit will arise from giving expression\nin ideal terms to his nation and to his age.  In so far as he has been\nable to do this and the spirit of his country is reflected in his work,\nin so far as he has represented what is best therein and most enduring,\nhe will have achieved greatness.  Not that this is always, or even\noften, a conscious expression.  It is unfair reading to search for deep\nthought in the work of either painter or poet.  Neither art {xxiii}\noffers the best medium to convey the abstractions of the mind, since\neach has its own method of expression, independent of pure reason.  But\npainter and poet, in the degree they attain greatness, express more\nthan themselves.  Ariosto, intent only to amuse, reflects with playful\nwit and skepticism the splendid luxury and joy of living in Renaissance\ncourt life.  The care with which he chiselled each line proves that his\nreal seriousness and conscience lay in his artistic purpose.  Without\nAriosto's wit, Paolo Veronese depicted a similar side in painting,\nthough his Venetian birthright made him celebrate the glory of the\nRepublic.  Poet and painter alike expressed far more than either could\nknow.  If such a test be applied to the artists of the Renaissance,\neach in turn will respond to it,--just as the weakness of the later\nBolognese as a school is that, beyond a certain technical merit, they\nmeant and represented so little.  But the noblest\npainters,--Michelangelo and Raphael, Titian and Leonardo,--in addition\nto possessing the solid grasp of technical mastery, reflected some\naspect of their nation's life and civilization.  In Michelangelo was\nrealized the grandeur of Italy struggling vainly against crushing\noppression.  He expressed that which was highest in it, reflecting the\nloftiest side of its idealism mingled with deep pessimism in his survey\nover life; for, wrapped in austerity, he saw mankind in heroic terms of\nsadness.  Raphael, on the {xxiv} other hand, found only beautiful\nsweetness everywhere.  The tragedies of life failed to touch the young\npainter, who blotted from view all struggle and sorrow, and, in spite\nof the misery which had befallen his nation, could still rejoice in the\nsensuous beauty of the world.  There was another side to the\nRenaissance, dependent neither on beauty nor heroic grandeur, yet\nsharing in both through qualities of its own.  Titian, who painted the\nliving man of action, the man of parts, susceptible alike to the\nappreciation of ideal beauty and heroic impulse, but guided withal by\nexpediency, reflected this more practical aspect of life.  In his\nportraiture he expressed the statecraft for which Italians found\nopportunity beyond the Alps, since in Italy it was denied them; and\nTitian found even Venice too narrow for the scope of his art.\n\nBut before Titian, before Raphael, before Michelangelo, Leonardo\nreflected the rationalism and the mystery, the subtlety and the\nphilosophical speculation, of the age.  To find in his work only the\nindividual thought of genius would be to mistake, perhaps, its most\nimportant side; for the expression of his mind, both by its brilliancy\nand its limitations, is typical of the spirit of his time.  The Italian\nRenaissance was reflected in him as rarely a period has been expressed\nin the life-work of a single man.  He represented its union of practice\nand theory, of thought placed in the {xxv} service of action.  He\nsummed up its different aspects in his own individuality.\nIntellectually, he represented its many-sidedness attained through\npenetration of thought, and a keenness of observation, profiting from\nexperience, extended into every sphere.  As an artist he possessed a\nvigour of imagination from which sprang his power of creating beauty.\nBut, in spite of his practical nature, he remained a dreamer in an age\nwhich had in it more of stern reality than of golden dreams.  His very\nlimitations, his excess of individualism, his want of long-continued\nconcentration, his lack of patriotism, his feeling of the superiority\nof art to nationality, are all characteristic of Renaissance Italy.\n\nThe union in Leonardo of reality to mystery has often been shared by\ngenius in other fields.  His own peculiar greatness sprang from\nexpressing in art the apparent contradiction of attaining the world of\nmystery through force of reality.  Like Hamlet, it was the union of the\nreal with the unreal which appealed to him, of the world as he saw it\nand the world as he imagined it to be.  It was but another expression\nof the eternal ideal of truth and beauty.\n\nL. E.\n\nAmerican Embassy\n  London, 1906\n\n\n\n\n{3}\n\nI\n\nTHOUGHTS ON LIFE\n\n      * *\n       *\n\n[Sidenote: Of the Works of Leonardo]\n\nBegun at Florence in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli, on the 22d\nday of March, 1508; and this is to be a collection without order, taken\nfrom many papers which I have copied here, hoping to arrange them\nlater, each in its place, according to the various subjects treated.\nAnd I think that before I shall have finished this work, it will be\nnecessary for me to repeat the same thing many times over; so, O\nreader, blame me not, because the subjects are many, and memory cannot\nretain them and say: This I will not write because I have already\nwritten it; and if I did not wish to fall into this error it would be\nnecessary, every time that I wished to copy something, in order not to\nrepeat myself, to read over all the preceding matter, all the more so\nsince the intervals are long between one time of writing and another.\n\n\n[Sidenote: His Thirst after Knowledge]\n\n2.\n\nNot louder does the tempestuous sea bellow when the north wind strikes\nits foaming waves between Scylla and Charybdis; nor Stromboli nor Mount\nEtna when the sulphurous flames, {4} shattering and bursting open the\ngreat mountain with violence, hurl stones and earth through the air\nwith the flame it vomits; nor when the fiery caverns of Mount Etna,\nspitting forth the element which it cannot restrain, hurl it back to\nthe place whence it issued, driving furiously before it any obstacle in\nthe way of its vehement fury ... so I, urged by my great desire and\nlonging to see the blending of strange and various shapes made by\ncreating nature, wandered for some time among the dark rocks, and came\nto the entrance of a great cave, in front of which I long stood in\nastonishment and ignorance of such a thing.  I bent my back into an\narch and rested my left hand on my knee, and with my right hand shaded\nmy downcast eyes and contracted eyebrows.  I bent down first on one\nside and then on the other to see whether I could perceive anything,\nbut the thick darkness rendered this impossible; and after having\nremained there some time, two things arose within me, fear and\ndesire,--fear of the dark and threatening cave, desire to see whether\nthere were anything marvellous within.\n\n\n3.\n\nI discover for man the origin of the first and perhaps of the second\ncause of his being.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Leonardo's Studies]\n\n4.\n\nRecognizing as I do that I cannot make use of {5} subject matter which\nis useful and delightful, since my predecessors have exhausted the\nuseful and necessary themes, I shall do as the man who by reason of his\npoverty arrives last at the fair, and cannot do otherwise than purchase\nwhat has already been seen by others and not accepted, but rejected by\nthem as being of little value.  I shall place this despised and\nrejected merchandise, which remains over after many have bought, on my\npoor pack, and I shall go and distribute it, not in the big cities, but\nin the poor towns, and take such reward as my goods deserve.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Vain Knowledge]\n\n5.\n\nAll knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to\nlife, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical\npart.\n\n\n6.\n\nAvoid studies the result of which will die together with him who\nstudied.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Value of Knowledge]\n\n7.\n\nThe intellect will always profit by the acquisition of any knowledge\nwhatsoever, for thus what is useless will be expelled from it, and what\nis fruitful will remain.  It is impossible either to hate or to love a\nthing without first acquiring knowledge of it.\n\n{6}\n\n8.\n\nMen of worth naturally desire knowledge.\n\n\n9.\n\nIt is ordained that to the ambitious, who derive no satisfaction from\nthe gifts of life and the beauty of the world, life shall be a cause of\nsuffering, and they shall possess neither the profit nor the beauty of\nthe world.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On his Contemners]\n\n10.\n\nI know that many will say that this work is useless, and these are they\nof whom Demetrius said recked no more of the breath which made the\nwords proceed from their mouth, than of the wind which proceeded from\ntheir body,--men who seek solely after riches and bodily satisfaction,\nmen entirely denuded of that wisdom which is the food and verily the\nwealth of the soul; because insomuch as the soul is of greater value\nthan the body, so much greater are the riches of the soul than those of\nthe body.  And often when I see one of these take this work in his\nhand, I wonder whether, like a monkey, he will not smell it and ask me\nif it is something to eat.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On the Vulgar]\n\n11.\n\nDemetrius used to say that there was no difference between the words\nand the voice of the {7} unskilled ignorant and the sounds and noises\nof a stomach full of superfluous wind.  And it was not without reason\nthat he said this, for he considered it to be indifferent whence the\nutterance of such men proceeded, whether from their mouth or their\nbody; both being of the same substance and value.\n\n\n12.\n\nI do not consider that men of coarse and boorish habits and of slender\nparts deserve so fine an instrument nor such a complicated mechanism as\nmen of contemplation and high culture.  They merely need a sack in\nwhich their food may be held and whence it may issue, since verily they\ncannot be considered otherwise than as vehicles for food, for they seem\nto me to have nothing in common with the human race save the shape and\nthe voice; as far as the rest is concerned they are lower than the\nbeasts.\n\n\n13.\n\nKnowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament\nand food of the mind of man.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Knowledge the supreme Good]\n\n14.\n\nCornelius Celsus: Knowledge is the supreme good, the supreme evil is\nphysical pain.  We are composed of two separate parts, the soul and the\nthe body; the soul is the greater of these two, the body the lesser.\nKnowledge appertains to the {8} greater part, the supreme evil belongs\nto the lesser and baser part.  Knowledge is an excellent thing for the\nmind, and pain is the most grievous thing for the body.  Just as the\nsupreme evil is physical pain, so is wisdom the supreme good of the\nsoul, that is to say of the wise man, and no other thing can be\ncompared with it.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Life and Wisdom]\n\n15.\n\nIn the days of thy youth seek to obtain that which shall compensate the\nlosses of thy old age.  And if thou understandest that old age is fed\nwith wisdom, so conduct thyself in the days of thy youth that\nsustenance may not be lacking to thy old age.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Praise of Knowledge]\n\n16.\n\nThe fame of the rich man dies with him; the fame of the treasure, and\nnot of the man who possessed it, remains.  Far greater is the glory of\nthe virtue of mortals than that of their riches.  How many emperors and\nhow many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and\nthey only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame\nmight be ever-lasting.  How many were those who lived in scarcity of\nworldly goods in order to grow rich in virtue; and as far as virtue\nexceeds wealth, even in the same degree the desire of the poor man\nproved more fruitful than that of the rich man.  {9} Dost thou not see\nthat wealth in itself confers no honour on him who amasses it, which\nshall last when he is dead, as does knowledge?--knowledge which shall\nalways bear witness like a clarion to its creator, since knowledge is\nthe daughter of its creator, and not the stepdaughter, like wealth.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The World]\n\n17.\n\nBountiful nature has provided that in all parts of the world you will\nfind something to imitate.\n\n\n18.\n\n[Sidenote: The Beauty of Life]\n\nConsider in the streets at nightfall the faces of men and women when it\nis bad weather, what grace and sweetness they manifest!\n\n\n19.\n\nJust as iron which is not used grows rusty, and water putrefies and\nfreezes in the cold, so the mind of which no use is made is spoilt.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Fruitless Study]\n\n20.\n\nJust as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment, so does\nstudy without zeal damage the memory by not assimilating what it\nabsorbs.\n\n\n21.\n\nTruth was the only daughter of time.\n\n\n{10}\n\n[Sidenote: In Praise of Truth]\n\n22.\n\nSo vile a thing is a lie that even if it spoke fairly of God it would\ntake away somewhat from His divinity; and so excellent a thing is truth\nthat if it praises the humblest things they are exalted.  There is no\ndoubt that truth is to falsehood as light is to darkness; and so\nexcellent a thing is truth that even when it touches humble and lowly\nmatters, it still incomparably exceeds the uncertainty and falsehood in\nwhich great and elevated discourses are clothed; because even if\nfalsehood be the fifth element of our minds, notwithstanding this,\ntruth is the supreme nourishment of the higher intellects, though not\nof disorderly minds.  But thou who feedest on dreams dost prefer the\nsophistry and subterfuges in matters of importance and uncertainty to\nwhat is certain and natural, though of lesser magnitude.\n\n\n23.\n\nObstacles in the way of truth are finally punished.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Versus Humanists]\n\n24.\n\nI am well aware that not being a literary man the presumptuous will\nthink that they have the right to blame me on the ground that I am not\na man of letters.  Vainglorious people!  Know they not that I could\nmake answer as Marius did to the Roman people, and say: They who make a\n{11} display with the labours of others will not allow me mine?  They\nwill say that being unskilled in letters I cannot find true expression\nfor the matters of which I desire to treat; they do not know that in my\nsubjects experience is a truer guide than the words of others, for\nexperience was the teacher of all great writers, and therefore I take\nher for guide, and I will cite her in all cases.\n\n\n25.\n\nAlthough I may not be able to quote other authors, as they do, I can\nquote from a greater and more worthy source, namely, experience,--the\nteacher of their masters.  They go about swelled with pride and\npomposity, dressed up and bedight, not with their own labour, but with\nthat of others; and they will not concede me mine.  And if they despise\nme, who am a creator, far more are they, who do not create but trumpet\nabroad and exploit the works of other men, to be blamed.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Authority]\n\n26.\n\nHe who in reasoning cites authority is making use of his memory rather\nthan of his intellect.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On Commentators]\n\n27.\n\nMen who are creators and interpreters of nature to man, in comparison\nwith boasters and exploiters of the works of others, must be judged\n{12} and esteemed like the object before the mirror as compared with\nits image reflected in the mirror.--one being something in itself, and\nthe other nothing.  Little to nature do they owe, since it is merely by\nchance they wear the human form, and but for it I might include them\nwith herds of cattle.\n\n\n28.\n\nA well lettered man is so because he is well natured, and just as the\ncause is more admirable than the effect, so is a good disposition,\nunlettered, more praiseworthy than a well lettered man who is without\nnatural disposition.\n\n\n29.\n\nAgainst certain commentators who disparage the inventors of antiquity,\nthe originators of science and grammar, and who attack the creators of\nantiquity; and because they through laziness and the convenience of\nbooks have not been able to create, they attack their masters with\nfalse reasoning.\n\n\n30.\n\nIt is better to imitate ancient than modern work.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Experience]\n\n31.\n\nWisdom is the daughter of experience.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Experience never Errs]\n\n32.\n\nWrongly men complain of experience, which {13} with great railing they\naccuse of falsehood.  Leave experience alone, and turn your lamentation\nto your ignorance, which leads you, with your vain and foolish desires,\nto promise yourselves those things which are not in her power to\nconfer, and to accuse her of falsehood.  Wrongly men complain of\ninnocent experience, when they accuse her not seldom of false and lying\ndemonstrations.\n\n\n33.\n\nExperience never errs; it is only your judgements that err, ye who look\nto her for effects which our experiments cannot produce.  Because given\na principle, that which ensues from it is necessarily the true\nconsequence of that principle, unless it be impeded.  Should there,\nhowever, be any obstacle, the effect which should ensue from the\naforesaid principle will participate in the impediment as much or as\nlittle as the impediment is operative in regard to the aforesaid\nprinciple.\n\n\n34.\n\nExperience, the interpreter between creative nature and the human race,\nteaches the action of nature among mortals: how under the constraint of\nnecessity she cannot act otherwise than as reason, who steers her helm,\nteaches her to act.\n\n\n35.\n\nAll our knowledge is the offspring of our perceptions.\n\n\n{14}\n\n[Sidenote: Origin of Knowledge]\n\n36.\n\nThe sense ministers to the soul, and not the soul sense; and where the\nsense which ministers ceases to serve the soul, all the functions of\nthat sense are lacking in life, as is evident in those who are born\ndumb and blind.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Testimony of the Senses]\n\n37.\n\nAnd if thou sayest that sight impedes the security and subtlety of\nmental meditation, by reason of which we penetrate into divine\nknowledge, and that this impediment drove a philosopher to deprive\nhimself of his sight, I answer that the eye, as lord of the senses,\nperforms its duty in being an impediment to the confusion and lies of\nthat which is not science but discourse, by which with much noise and\ngesticulation argument is constantly conducted; and hearing should do\nthe same, feeling, as it does, the offence more keenly, because it\nseeks after harmony which devolves on all the senses.  And if this\nphilosopher deprived himself of his sight to get rid of the obstacle to\nhis discourses, consider that his discourses and his brain were a party\nto the act, because the whole was madness.  Now could he not have\nclosed his eyes when this frenzy came upon him, and have kept them\nclosed until the frenzy consumed itself?  But the man was mad, the\ndiscourse insane, and egregious the folly of destroying his eye-sight.\n\n{15}\n\n[Sidenote: Judgement prone to Error]\n\n38.\n\nThere is nothing which deceives us as much as our own judgement.\n\n\n39.\n\nThe greatest deception which men incur proceeds from their opinions.\n\n\n40.\n\nAvoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed\nby experience.\n\n[Sidenote: Intelligence of Animals]\n\n41.\n\nMan discourseth greatly, and his discourse is for the greater part\nempty and false; the discourse of animals is small, but useful and\ntrue: slender certainty is better than portentous falsehood.\n\n\n42.\n\nWhat is an element?  It is not in man's power to define the quiddity of\nthe elements, but a great many of their effects are known.\n\n\n43.\n\nThat which is divisible in fact is divisible in potentiality also; but\nnot all quantities which are divisible in potentiality are divisible in\nfact.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Infinity incomprehensible]\n\n44.\n\nWhat is that thing which is not defined and would {16} not exist if it\nwere defined?  It is infinity, which if it could be defined would be\nlimited and finite, because that which can be defined ends with the\nlimits of its circumference, and that which cannot be defined has no\nlimits.\n\n\n45.\n\nO contemplators of things, do not pride yourselves for knowing those\nthings which nature by herself and her ordination naturally conduces;\nbut rejoice in knowing the purposes of those things which are\ndetermined by your mind.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Insoluble Questions]\n\n46.\n\nConsider, O reader, how far we can lend credence to the ancients who\nstrove to define the soul and life,--things which cannot be proved;\nwhile those things which can be clearly known and proved by experience\nremained during so many centuries ignored and misrepresented!  The eye,\nwhich so clearly demonstrates its functions, has been up to my time\ndefined in one manner by countless authorities; I by experience have\ndiscovered another definition.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Beauty of Nature's Inventions]\n\n47.\n\nAlthough human ingenuity may devise various inventions which, by the\nhelp of various instruments, answer to one and the same purpose, yet\n{17} will it never discover any inventions more beautiful, more simple\nor more practical than those of nature, because in her inventions there\nis nothing lacking and nothing superfluous; and she makes use of no\ncounterpoise when she constructs the limbs of animals in such a way as\nto correspond to the motion of their bodies, but she puts into them the\nsoul of the body.  This is not the proper place for this discourse,\nwhich belongs rather to the subject of the composition of animated\nbodies; and the rest of the definition of the soul I leave to the minds\nof the friars, the fathers of the people, who know all secrets by\ninspiration.  I leave the sacred books alone, because they are the\nsupreme truth.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Completeness in Knowledge]\n\n48.\n\nThose who seek to abbreviate studies do injury to knowledge and to love\nbecause the love of anything is the daughter of this knowledge.  The\nfervency of the love increases in proportion to the certainty of the\nknowledge, and the certainty issues from a complete knowledge of all\nthe parts, which united compose the totality of the thing which ought\nto be loved.  Of what value, then, is he who abbreviates the details of\nthose matters of which he professes to render a complete account, while\nhe leaves behind the chief part of the things of which the whole is\ncomposed?  It is true that impatience, the mother of {18} stupidity,\npraises brevity, as if such persons had not life long enough to enable\nthem to acquire a complete knowledge of one subject such as the human\nbody!  And then they seek to comprehend the mind of God, in which the\nuniverse is included, weighing it and splitting it into infinite\nparticles, as if they had to dissect it!\n\nO human folly! dost thou not perceive that thou hast been with thyself\nall thy life, and thou art not yet aware of the thing which more fully\nthan any other thing thou dost possess, namely, thy own folly?  And\nthou desirest with the multitude of sophists to deceive thyself and\nothers, despising the mathematical sciences in which truth dwells and\nthe knowledge of the things which they contain; and then thou dost busy\nthyself with miracles, and writest that thou hast attained to the\nknowledge of those things which the human mind cannot comprehend, which\ncannot be proved by any instance in nature, and thou deemest that thou\nhast wrought a miracle in spoiling the work of some speculative mind;\nand thou perceivest not that thy error is the same as that of a man who\nstrips a plant of the ornament of its branches covered with leaves,\nmingled with fragrant flowers and fruits.  Just as Justinius did when\nhe abridged the stories written by Trogus Pompeius, who had written\nelaborately the noble deeds of his forefathers, which were full of\nwonderful beauties of style; and thus {19} he composed a barren work,\nworthy only of the impatient spirits who deem that they are wasting the\ntime which they might usefully employ in studying the works of nature\nand mortal affairs.  But let such men remain in company with the\nbeasts; let dogs and other animals full of rapine be their courtiers,\nand let them be accompanied with these running ever at their heels! and\nlet the harmless animals follow, which in the season of the snows come\nto the houses begging alms as from their master.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Nature]\n\n49.\n\nNature is full of infinite causes which are beyond the pale of\nexperience.\n\n\n50.\n\nNature in creating first gives size to the abode of the intellect (the\nskull, the head), and then to the abode of the vital spirit (the chest).\n\n\n[Sidenote: Law of Necessity]\n\n51.\n\nNecessity is the mistress and guide of nature.  Necessity is the theme\nand inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.\n\n\n52.\n\nWhen anything is the cause of any other thing, and brings about by its\nmovement any effect, {20} the movement of the effect necessarily\nfollows the movement of the cause.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Lightning in the Clouds]\n\n53.\n\nO mighty and once living instrument of creative nature, unable to avail\nthyself of thy great strength thou must needs abandon a life of\ntranquillity and obey the law which God and time gave to Nature the\nmother.  Ah! how often the frighted shoals of dolphins and great tunny\nfish were seen fleeing before thy inhuman wrath; whilst thou,\nfulminating with swift beating of wings and twisted tail, raised in the\nsea a sudden storm with buffeting and sinking of ships and tossing of\nwaves, filling the naked shores with terrified and distracted fishes.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Human Eye]\n\n54.\n\nSince the eye is the window of the soul, the soul is always fearful of\nlosing it, so much so that if a man is suddenly frightened by the\nmotion or an object before him, he does not with his hands protect his\nheart, the source of all life; nor his head, where dwells the lord of\nthe senses; nor the organs of hearing, smell and taste.  But as soon as\nhe feels fright it does not suffice him to close the lids of his eyes,\nkeeping them shut with all his might, but he instantly turns in the\nopposite direction; and still not feeling secure he covers his eyes\nwith one hand, stretching out the {21} other to ward off the danger in\nthe direction in which he suspects it to lie.  Nature again has\nordained that the eye of man shall close of itself, so that remaining\nduring his sleep without protection it shall suffer no hurt.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Universal Law]\n\n55.\n\nEvery object naturally seeks to maintain itself in itself.\n\n\n56.\n\nThe part always tends to reunite with its whole in order to escape from\nits imperfection; the soul desires to remain with its body, because\nwithout the organic instruments of that body it can neither act nor\nfeel.\n\n\n57.\n\nThe lover is moved by the object he loves as the senses are by sensible\nthings; and they unite and become one and the same.  The work is the\nfirst thing which is born of this union; if the thing loved is base,\nthe lover becomes base.  When what is united is in harmony with that\nwhich receives it, delight, pleasure and satisfaction ensue.  When the\nlover is united to the beloved he rests there; when the burden is laid\ndown it finds rest there.\n\n\n58.\n\nA natural action is accomplished in the briefest manner.\n\n\n{22}\n\n[Sidenote: Nature Variable and Infinite.]\n\n59.\n\nTo such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among\nher trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like\nanother; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the\nleaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar\nto another.\n\n\n60.\n\nIf nature had made one rule for the quality of limbs, the faces of men\nwould resemble each other to such a degree that it would not be\npossible to distinguish one from the other; but she has varied the five\nfeatures of the face in such a way that, although she has made an\nalmost universal rule with regard to their size, she has not done so\nwith regard to their quality, so that each one can be clearly\ndistinguished from the other.\n\n\n61.\n\nIt is an easy matter for him who knows man to arrive at universal\nknowledge, since all terrestrial animals are similar in regard to their\nstructure, that is to say, in regard to the muscles and bones, and they\ndo not vary save in height and thickness; then there are the aquatic\nanimals, and I will not persuade the painter that any rule can be made\nwith regard to these because they are of infinite variety--so are the\ninsects.\n\n\n{23}\n\n62.\n\nThe body of anything which is fed is continually dying and being\nreborn, since nourishment cannot enter save where the past nourishment\nis exhausted; and if it is exhausted, it no longer has life, and if you\ndo not furnish it with nourishment equal to that which has been before,\nyou will impair the health of the organism, and if you deprive it of\nthis nourishment, life will be altogether destroyed.  But if you supply\nit with so much as can be consumed in a day, then as much life will be\nrestored as was consumed, like the light of the candle which is\nfurnished to it by the fuel provided by the moisture of the candle, and\nthis light with most speedy succour restores beneath what is consumed\nabove as it dies in dusky smoke; and this death is continuous, likewise\nthe continuity of the smoke is equal to the continuity of the fuel; and\nin the same moment the light dies and is born again together with the\nmovement of its fuel.\n\n\n63.\n\nMan and animals are in reality vehicles and conduits of food, tombs of\nanimals, hostels of Death, coverings that consume, deriving life by the\ndeath of others.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Light]\n\n64.\n\nLook on light and consider its beauty.  Shut your {24} eyes, and look\nagain: that which you see was not there before, and that which was, no\nlonger is.  Who is he who remakes it if the producer is continually\ndying?\n\n\n65.\n\nAnaxagoras: Everything proceeds from everything, and everything becomes\neverything, because that which exists in the elements is composed of\nthose elements.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Nature]\n\n66.\n\nNature appears to have been the cruel stepmother rather than the mother\nof many animals, and in some cases not the stepmother, but the pitying\nmother.\n\n\n67.\n\nWhy did nature not ordain that one animal should not live by the death\nof the other?  Nature, being inconstant and taking pleasure in\ncontinually creating and making lives and forms, because she knows that\nher earthly materials are thereby augmented, is more willing and swift\nto create than time is to destroy; and so she has ordained that many\nanimals shall feed on each other.  And as even thus her desire is not\nsatisfied, she frequently sends forth certain poisonous and\npestilential vapours upon the increasing multitude and congregation of\nanimals, and especially upon men who increase to a great extent,\nbecause other animals do not feed on them; and since there is no cause,\n{25} there would follow no effect.  This earth, therefore, seeks to\nlose its [animal] life, desiring only continual reproduction, and as,\nby the logical demonstration you adduce, effects often resemble their\ncauses, animals are the image of the life of the world.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Life's Philosophy]\n\n68.\n\nNow you see that the hope and the desire of returning home to one's\nformer state is like the desire of the moth for the light, and the man\nwho, with constant yearning and joyful expectancy, awaits the new\nspring and the new summer, and every new month and the new year, and\nthinks that what he longs for is ever too late in coming, and does not\nperceive that he is longing for his own destruction.  But this desire\nis the quintessence, the spirit, of the elements, which, finding itself\ncaptive in the soul of the human body, desires always to return to its\ngiver.  And I would have you know that this same desire is the\nquintessence which is inseparable from nature, and that man is the\nmodel of the world.  And such is the supreme folly of man that he\nlabours so as to labour no more, and life flies from him while he\nforever hopes to enjoy the goods which he has acquired at the price of\ngreat labour.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Senses and the Soul]\n\n69.\n\nThe soul seems to dwell in the intellect, and the intellect appears to\ndwell in that part where all {26} the senses meet which is called the\nbrain, and the brain does not pervade the whole body, as many have\nthought; on the contrary, it dwells entirely in one part, because if it\nwere all in all and the same in every part, it would not have been\nnecessary for the instruments of the senses to combine among themselves\nin one single spot; but rather, it would have been sufficient for the\neye to fulfil the function of its sensation on the surface without\ntransmitting, by means of the optic nerves, the likeness of its vision\nto the brain, so that the soul, for the reason given above, might\nperceive it in the surface of the eye.  Likewise, with regard to the\nsense of hearing, it would have been sufficient if the voice had\nsounded only in the porous cavity of the indurated bone which lies\nwithin the ear, without making any further transit from this bone to\nthe brain, which is its destination and where it discourses with common\njudgement.  The sense of smell, too, is likewise compelled by necessity\nto proceed to the intellect; the sense of touch passes through the\nnerves and is conveyed to the brain, and these nerves diverge with\ninfinite ramification in the skin, which encloses the limbs of the body\nand the entrails.  The nerves convey volition and sensation to the\nmuscles, and these nerves and the tendons which lie between the muscles\nand the sinews give movement to them; the muscles and sinews obey, and\nthis obedience takes effect by the decrease {27} of their thickness,\nfor in swelling their length is reduced, and the tendons which are\ninterwoven among the particles of the limbs shrink, and as they extend\nto the tips of the fingers they transmit to the brain the cause of the\nsense of touch which they feel.  The tendons with their muscles obey\nthe nerves as soldiers obey their officers, and the nerves obey the\nbrain as the officers obey their captain; thus the joint of the bones\nobeys the tendon, and the tendons obey the muscles, and the muscles\nobey the nerves, and the nerves obey the brain, and the brain is the\ndwelling of the soul, and the memory is its ammunition and the\nperception is its refundary.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Sensation]\n\n70.\n\nThe brain is that which perceives what is transmitted to it by the\nother senses.  The brain moves by means of that which is transmitted to\nit by the five senses.  Motion is transmitted to the senses by objects,\nand these objects, transmitting their images to the five senses, are\ntransferred by them to the perception, and by the perception to the\nbrain; and there they are comprehended and committed to the memory, in\nwhich, according to their intensity, they are more or less firmly\nretained.\n\nThe thinkers of ancient times concluded that the part of man which\nconstitutes his intellect is caused by an instrument to which the other\nfive {28} senses refer everything by means of the perception, and this\ninstrument they have named the \"common sense\" or brain, and they say\nthat this sense is situated in the centre of the head.  And they have\ngiven it this name \"common sense\" solely because it is the common judge\nof the five other senses, that is to say, sight, hearing, touch, taste\nand smell.  The \"common sense\" is stirred by means of the perception\nwhich is placed between it and the senses.  The perception is stirred\nby means of the images of things conveyed to it by the external\ninstruments to the senses, and these are placed in the centre between\nthe external things and the perception, and the senses likewise are\nstirred by objects.  Surrounding objects transmit their images to the\nsenses, and the senses transfer them to the perception, and the\nperception transfers them to the \"common sense\" (brain), and by it they\nare stamped upon the memory, and are there retained in a greater or\nlesser degree according to the importance and intensity of the\nimpression.  The sense which is most closely connected with the\nperception is the most rapid in action, and this sense is the eye, the\nhighest and chief of the others; of this sense alone we will treat, and\nwe will leave the others in order not to unduly lengthen our matter.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Automatic Movements]\n\n71.\n\nNature has ordained for man the ministering {29} muscles which exercise\nthe sinews, and by means of which the limbs can be moved according to\nthe will and desire of the brain, like to officers distributed by a\nruler over many provinces and towns, who represent their ruler in these\nplaces, and obey his will.  And this officer, who will in a single\ninstance have most faithfully obeyed the orders he received from his\nmaster by word of mouth, will afterwards, in a similar way, of his own\naccord fulfil the wishes of his master.\n\nAn example of this can be frequently seen in the fingers, which learn\nto perform on an instrument the things which the intellect commands,\nand the lesson once learnt they will perform it without the aid of the\nintellect.  And do not the muscles which cause the legs to move perform\ntheir duty without man being conscious of it?\n\n\n72.\n\nYou will see palsied and shivering persons move, and their trembling\nlimbs, such as their head and hands, quiver, without the permission of\nthe soul, and the soul, though it expend all its might, cannot prevent\nthese limbs from trembling.  The same thing occurs in epilepsy or when\nlimbs are partially truncated, as in the case of tails of lizards.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Intellect]\n\n73.\n\nIt happens that our intellect is that which prompts the hand to create\nthe features of figures in {30} divine aspects until it finds\nsatisfaction; and since the intellect is one of the tones of our soul,\nby means of the soul it composes the form of the body where it dwells,\naccording to its volition.  And when it has to reproduce a human body,\nit takes pleasure in repeating the body which it originally created;\nwhence it follows that they who fall in love are prone to become\nenamoured of what resembles them.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of the Senses]\n\n74.\n\nThere are the four powers: memory, intellect, sensuality and lust.  The\nfirst two are intellectual, the others sensual.  Of the five senses,\nsight, hearing, smell are with difficulty prevented; touch and taste\nnot at all.  Taste follows smell in the case of dogs and other greedy\nanimals.\n\n\n75.\n\nWhy does the eye perceive things more clearly in dreams than with the\nimagination when one is awake?\n\n\n[Sidenote: Time]\n\n76.\n\nAlthough time is included among continuous quantities, being\nindivisible and immaterial it does not altogether fall into the scope\nof geometry,--by which it is divided into figures and bodies of\ninfinite variety, which are seen to be continuous inasmuch as they are\nvisible and material,--but it agrees only with its first principles,\n{31} i.e. with the point and the line; the point in time may be\ncompared to an instant, and the line to the length of a certain\nquantity of time.  Just as the point is the beginning and end of a\nline, so is an instant the beginning and end of any given space of\ntime; and just as a line is infinitely divisible, so can a given space\nof time be likewise divided, and as the divisions of the line are in\nproportion to each other, so likewise are the divisions of time.\n\n\n77.\n\nIn twelve whole figures the cosmography of the miniature world will be\nshown to you in the same manner as Ptolemy in his cosmography.  And so\nI will divide it afterwards into limbs as he divided the world into\nprovinces; then I will explain the function of the parts in every\ndirection, and put before your eyes a description of the whole figure\nand substance of man as regards his movements by means of his limbs.\nAnd thus if it please our great author I will demonstrate the nature of\nman and his habits in the way I describe his form.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On the Human Body]\n\n78.\n\nAnd thou, O man, who wilt gaze in this work of mine on the marvellous\nworks of nature, if thou thinkest it would be an act of wickedness to\ndestroy it, think how much more wicked it is to take the life of a man;\nand if this his structure appears to thee a miraculous work of art,\nremember that {32} it is nothing in comparison with the soul which\ninhabits this structure; for verily, whatever it may be, it is divine.\nLet it, then, dwell in His work and at His good will, and let not thy\nrage or malice destroy so great a thing as life, for he who does not\nvalue it does not deserve it.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Experimental Method]\n\n79.\n\nBy these rules thou wilt be able to distinguish falsehood from truth by\nmeans of which knowledge men aim at possible things with greater\nmoderation; and do not veil thyself in ignorance, for the result of\nthis would be that thou wouldst be ineffectual and fall into melancholy\nand despair.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Navigation below the Waters]\n\n80.\n\nHow by the aid of a machine many may remain for some time under water.\nAnd how and why I do not describe my method of remaining under water\nand of living long without food; and I do not publish nor divulge these\nthings by reason of the evil nature of man, who would use them for\nassassinations at the bottom of the sea and to destroy and sink ships,\ntogether with the men on board of them; and notwithstanding I will\nteach other things which are not dangerous....\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Physiognomy]\n\n81.\n\nI will not dwell on false physiognomy and chiromancy {33} because there\nis no truth in them, and this is manifest because chimeras of this kind\nhave no scientific foundation.  It is true that the lineaments of the\nface partly reveal the character of men, their vices and temperaments;\nbut in the face: (a) the features which separate the cheeks from the\nlips, and the nostrils and cavities of the eyes, are strongly marked if\nthey belong to cheerful and good-humoured men, and if they are slightly\nmarked it denotes that the men to whom they belong are given to\nmeditation, (b) Those whose features stand out in great relief and\ndepth are brutal and bad-tempered, and reason little, (c) Those who\nhave strongly marked lines between the eyebrows are bad-tempered, (d)\nThose who have strongly marked lines on the forehead are men full of\nconcealed or unconcealed bewailing.\n\nAnd we can reason thus about many features.  But the hand?  You will\nfind that whole armies perished in the same hour by the sword in which\nno two men had similar marks in their hands, and the same argument\napplies to a shipwreck.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Pain]\n\n82.\n\nNature has placed in the front part of man, as he moves, all those\nparts which when struck cause him to feel pain; and this is felt in the\njoints of the legs, the forehead and the nose, and has been so devised\nfor the preservation of man, because {34} if such pain were not felt in\nthese limbs they would be destroyed by the many blows they receive.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Why Plants do not feel Pain]\n\n83.\n\nWhile nature has ordained that animals should feel pain in order that\nthe instruments which might be liable to be maimed or marred by motion\nmay be preserved, plants do not come into collision with the objects\nwhich are before them; whence pain is not a necessity for them, and\ntherefore when they are broken they do not feel pain, as animals do.\n\n\n84.\n\nLust is the cause of generation.\n\nAppetite is the support of life.\n\nFear or timidity is the prolongation of life.\n\nPain is the preserver of the instrument (of the human frame).\n\n\n[Sidenote: Fear]\n\n85.\n\nJust as courage is the danger of life, so is fear its safeguard.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Body and Soul]\n\n86.\n\nLet him who wishes to see how the soul inhabits its body observe what\nuse the body makes of its daily habitation; that is to say, if the soul\nis full of confusion and disorder the body will be kept in disorder and\nconfusion by the soul.\n\n{35}\n\n87.\n\nThe soul can never be corrupted with the corruption of the body, but it\nis like the wind which causes the sound of the organ, and which ceases\nto produce a good effect when a pipe is spoilt.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Memory]\n\n88.\n\nEvery loss which we incur leaves behind it vexation in the memory, save\nthe greatest loss of all, that is, death, which annihilates the memory,\ntogether with life.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Spirit]\n\n89.\n\nOur body is subject to Heaven, and Heaven is subject to the Spirit.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Sense and Reason]\n\n90.\n\nThe senses are earthly; reason lies outside them when in contemplation.\n\n\n91.\n\nWhere most feeling exists, there amongst martyrs is the greatest martyr.\n\n\n92.\n\nThat which can be lost cannot be deemed riches.  Virtue is our true\nwealth and the true reward of its possessor; it cannot be lost, it\nnever deserts us until life leaves us.  Hold property and external\nriches with fear; they often leave their possessor scorned and mocked\nat for having lost them.\n\n\n{36}\n\n[Sidenote: Flight of Time]\n\n93.\n\nMen wrongly lament the flight of time, blaming it for being too swift;\nthey do not perceive that its passage is sufficiently long, but a good\nmemory, which nature has given to us, causes things long past to seem\npresent.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Illusions]\n\n94.\n\nOur intellect does not judge events which happened at various intervals\nof time in their true proportion, because many things which happened\nyears ago appear recent and close to the present, and often recent\nthings appear old and seem to belong to our past childhood.  The eye\ndoes likewise with regard to distant objects which in the light of the\nsun appear to be close to the eye, and many objects which are close\nappear to be remote.\n\n\n95.\n\nLet us not lack ways and means of dividing and measuring these our\nwretched days, which we ought to take pleasure in spending and living\nnot vainly and not without praise, nor without leaving any memory in\nthe minds of men, so that this our miserable existence may not be spent\nin vain.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Virtuous Life]\n\n96.\n\nThe age which flies glides by in stealth and deceives others; and\nnothing is more swift than the years, and he who sows virtue reaps\nglory.\n\n{37}\n\n[Sidenote: Sleep and Death]\n\n97.\n\nO sleeper, what is sleep?  Sleep is like unto death.  Why dost thou not\nwork in such wise that after death thou mayst have the semblance of\nperfect life, just as during life thou hast in thy sleep the semblance\nof the hapless dead?\n\n\n98.\n\nThe water you touch in a river is the last of that which has gone, and\nthe first of that which is coming: so it is with time present.\n\n\n99.\n\nA long life is a life well spent.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Life]\n\n100.\n\nAs a well spent day affords happy sleep, so does a life profitably\nemployed afford a happy death.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Time the Destroyer]\n\n101.\n\nO time, consumer of things!  O envious age!  Thou dost destroy all\nthings, and consumest all things with the hard teeth of old age, little\nby little in a slow death.  Helen, when she looked in her mirror and\nsaw the withered wrinkles made in her face by old age, wept, and\nwondered why she had twice been ravished.  O time, devourer of things!\nO envious age, by which all is consumed!\n\n\n{38}\n\n[Sidenote: On Fault-finders]\n\n102.\n\nThere exists among the foolish a certain sect of hypocrites who\ncontinually seek to deceive themselves and others, but others more than\nthemselves, though in reality they deceive themselves more than others.\nAnd these are they who blame the painters who study on feast-days the\nthings which relate to the true knowledge of the forms of the works of\nnature, and sedulously strive to acquire knowledge of these things to\nthe best of their ability.\n\nBut such fault-finders pass over in silence the fact that this is the\ntrue manner of knowing the Artificer of such great and marvellous\nthings, and that this is the true way in which to love so great an\nInventor!  For great love proceeds from the perfect knowledge of the\nthing loved; and if you do not know it you can love it but little or\nnot at all; and if you love it for the gain which you anticipate\nobtaining from it and not for its supreme virtue, you are like the dog\nwhich wags its tail and shows signs of joy, leaping towards him who can\ngive him a bone.  But if you knew the virtue of a man you would love\nhim more--if that virtue was in its place.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Prayer]\n\n103.\n\nI obey Thee, Lord, first for the love which in reason I ought to bear\nThee; secondly because Thou {39} hast the power to shorten or prolong\nthe lives of men.\n\n\n104.\n\nThou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labour.\n\n\n105.\n\nAnd many make a trade deceiving the foolish multitude, and if no one\ncomes to unmask their deceits, they punish it.\n\n\n106.\n\nPharisees,--that is to say, holy friars.\n\n\n107.\n\nNothing can be written by means of new researches.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Patience]\n\n108.\n\nPatience serves against insults as clothes do against the cold; since\nif you multiply your clothes as the cold increases, the cold cannot\nhurt you.  Similarly, let thy patience increase under great offences,\nand they will not be able to hurt your feelings.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Advice to a Speaker]\n\n109.\n\nWords which do not satisfy the ear of the listener will always weary or\nannoy him; and you will often see signs of this in such listeners in\ntheir frequent yawns.  Therefore, you who speak before men whose good\nopinion you seek, when you {40} observe such signs of vexation, shorten\nyour speech or vary your argument; and if you do otherwise, then\ninstead of the favour you seek you will incur hate and hostility.\n\nAnd if you would see what gives pleasure to a man speak to him on\nvarious themes, and when you see him intent, without yawning, or\ncontracting his brow, or performing other actions, then be certain that\nthe matter of which you are speaking is such as affords him pleasure.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Advice]\n\n110.\n\nHere is a thing which the more it is needed the more it is rejected:\nand this is advice, which is unwillingly heeded by those who most need\nit, that is to say, by the ignorant.\n\nHere is a thing which the more you fear and avoid it the nearer you\napproach to it, and this is misery; the more you flee from it the more\nmiserable and restless you will become.  When the work comes up to the\nstandard of the judgement, this is a bad sign for the judgement; and\nwhen the work excels the standard of the judgement, this is the worst\nsign, as occurs when a man marvels at having worked so well; and when\nthe standard of the judgement exceeds that fulfilled by the work, this\nis a sign of perfection; and if the man is young and be thus disposed,\nhe will without doubt grow into an excellent workman: he will only\naccomplish few works.  But they will {41} be of a quality which will\ncompel men to contemplate their perfection with admiration.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Proverbs]\n\n111.\n\nNothing should be so greatly feared as empty fame.\n\nThis empty fame issues from vices.\n\nA broken vase of clay can be remodelled, but this is no longer possible\nwhen it has been baked.\n\nThe vow is born when hope dies.\n\nThe beautiful is not always the good.  And the fine talkers labour\nunder this error without any reason.\n\nHe who wishes to grow rich in a day will be hanged in a year.\n\nThe memory of benefits is a frail defence against ingratitude.\n\nReprove your friend in secret and praise him in public.\n\nHe who fears dangers will not perish by them.\n\nThe evil which does me no harm is like the good which in no wise avails\nme.\n\nHe who offends others is not himself secure.\n\nBe not false about the past.\n\nFolly is the shield of lies, just as unreadiness is the defence of\npoverty.\n\nWhere there is liberty, there is no rule.\n\n{42}\n\nHere is a thing which the more it is heeded the more it is\nspurned,--advice.\n\nIt is ill to praise, and worse to blame, the thing which you do not\nunderstand.\n\nOn Mount Etna the words freeze in your mouth and you make ice of them.\n\nThreats are the only weapons of the threatened man.\n\nAsk advice of him who governs himself well.\n\nJustice needs power, intelligence and will, and is like the Queen Bee.\n\nNot to punish evil is equivalent to authorizing it.\n\nHe who takes the snake by the tail will be bitten by it.\n\nThe pit will fall in upon him who digs it.\n\nHe who does not restrain voluptuousness is in the category of the\nbeasts.\n\nYou can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.\n\nHe who thinks little errs much.\n\nIt is easier to contend at the first than at the last.\n\nNo counsel is more sincere than that given on ships which are in danger.\n\nLet him who acts on the advice of the young expect loss.\n\nYou grow in reputation like bread in the hands of a child.\n\n{43}\n\nCannot beauty and utility be combined--as appears in citadels and men?\n\nHe who is without fear often incurs great losses, and is often full of\nregret.\n\nIf you governed your body according to virtue you would not live in\nthis world.\n\nWhere good fortune enters, envy lays siege to her and attacks her, and\nwhen she departs sorrow and regret remain behind.\n\nWhen beauty exists side by side with ugliness, the one seems more\npowerful, owing to the presence of the other.\n\nHe who walks straight rarely falls.\n\nO miserable race of man! of how many things you make yourself the slave\nfor the sake of money!\n\nThe worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should\nappear good in his own eyes.\n\nTo speak well of a bad man is the same as speaking ill of a good man.\n\nTruth ordains that lying tongues shall be punished by the lie.\n\nHe who does not value life does not deserve it.\n\nThe beautiful works of mortals pass and do not endure.\n\nLabour flies with fame almost hidden in its arm.\n\nThe gold in ingots is refined in the fire.\n\n{44}\n\nThe shuttle says: I will continue to move until the cloth is woven.\n\nEverything that is crooked is straightened.\n\nGreat ruin proceeds from a slight cause.\n\nFine gold is recognized when it is tested.\n\nThe image will correspond to the die.\n\nThe wall will fall on him who scrapes it.\n\nIvy lives long.\n\nTo the traitor, death is life, because if he makes use of others he is\nno longer believed.\n\nWhen fortune comes seize her in front firmly, because behind she is\nbald.\n\nConstancy means, not he who begins, but he who perseveres.\n\nI do not yield to obstacles.\n\nEvery obstacle is overcome by resolve.\n\nHe who is chained to a star does not change.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Truth]\n\n112.\n\nFire destroys falsehood,--that is to say, sophistry,--and rehabilitates\ntruth, scattering the darkness.\n\nFire must be represented as the consumer of all sophistry and the\nrevealer of truth, because it is light and scatters darkness which\nconceals all essences.\n\nFire destroys all sophistry,--that is to say, deceit,--and preserves\ntruth alone, which is gold.  {45} Truth cannot be concealed in the end,\ndissimulation is of no avail.  Dissimulation is frustrated before so\ngreat a judge.  Falsehood puts on a mask.\n\nThere is nothing hidden under the sun.  Fire must represent truth\nbecause it destroys all sophistry and lies, and the mask is for\nsophistry and lies, which conceal truth.\n\n\n113.\n\nRather privation of limbs than weariness of doing good.  The power of\nusing my limbs shall fail me before the power of being useful.  Rather\ndeath than weariness.  I cannot be satiated with serving.  I do not\nweary of giving help.  No amount of work is sufficient to weary me.\nThis is a carnival motto: \"Sine lassitudine.\"  Hands in which ducats\nand precious stones abound like snow never grow weary of serving, but\nsuch a service is for its utility only and not for our profit.  Nature\nhas formed me thus.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Ingratitude]\n\n114.\n\nThis shall be placed in the hand of ingratitude: The wood nourishes the\nfire that consumes it.  When the sun, the scatterer of darkness,\nshines, you put out the light which for you in particular, and for your\nneed and convenience, expelled the darkness.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Physiological Inferiority of Man]\n\n115.\n\nI have found that in the composition of the human body as compared with\nthe bodies of {46} animals the senses are less subtle and coarser; it\nis thus composed of less ingenious machinery and of cells less capable\nof receiving the power of senses.  I have seen that in the lion the\nsense of smell is connected with the substance of the brain and\ndescends through the nostrils which form an ample receptacle for it;\nand it enters into a great number of cartilaginous cells which are\nprovided with many passages in order to receive the brain.  A large\npart of the head of the lion is given up to the sockets of the eyes,\nand the optic nerves are in immediate contact with the brain; the\ncontrary occurs in man, because the sockets of the eyes occupy a small\nportion of the head, and the optic nerves are subtle and long and weak,\nand owing to the weakness of their action we see little by day and less\nat night; and the animals above mentioned see better at night than in\nthe daytime; and the proof of this is that they seek their prey at\nnight and sleep during the daytime, as do also the nocturnal birds.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Man's Ethical Inferiority]\n\n116.\n\nThou hast described him king of animals, but I would rather say, king\nof beasts, thou being the greatest--for hast thou not slain them in\norder that they may give thee their children to glut thy greed with\nwhich thou hast striven to make a sepulchre for all animals?  And I\nwould say still more if I might speak the whole truth.  But let us {47}\nconfine ourselves to human matters, relating one supreme infamy, which\nis not to be found among the animals of the earth; because among these\nyou will not find animals who eat their young, except when they are\nutterly foolish (and there are few indeed of such among them), and this\noccurs only among the beasts of prey, such as the lions, and leopards,\npanthers, lynxes, cats and the like, which sometimes feed on their\nyoung; but thou, besides thy children, dost devour thy father, thy\nmother, thy brother and thy friends; and not satisfied with this, thou\ngoest forth to hunt on the islands of others, seizing other men and\nthese half naked ... thou fattenest and chasest them down thy own\nthroat.  Now does not nature produce enough vegetables for thee to\nsatisfy thyself?  And if thou art not content with vegetables, canst\nthou not by a mixture of them make infinite compounds as Platina wrote,\nand other writers on food?\n\n\n[Sidenote: Man in the Animal World]\n\n117.\n\nThe description of man, including that of such creatures belonging\nalmost to the same species, such as apes, monkeys and the like, of\nwhich there are many.\n\n\n118.\n\nThe way of walking in man is similar in all cases to the universal way\nof walking in four-footed animals, because, just as they move their\nfeet {48} crosswise, like a trotting horse, so man moves his four limbs\ncrosswise, that is to say, in walking he puts forward his right foot\nsimultaneously with his left arm, and so on vice versa.\n\n\n119.\n\nWrite a special treatise to describe the movements of four-footed\nanimals, among which is man, who in his childhood also walks on four\nfeet.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Fragment of a Letter]\n\n120.\n\nThere is one who having promised me much less than his due, and being\ndisappointed of his presumptuous desire, has tried to deprive me of all\nmy friends; and finding them wise and not pliable to his will, he has\nthreatened me that he would bring accusations against me and alienate\nmy benefactors from me: hence I have informed Your Lordship of this, so\nthat this man, who wishes to sow the usual scandals, may not find a\nsoil fit for sowing the thoughts and deeds of his evil nature; and that\nwhen he tries to make Your Lordship the tool of his infamous and\nmalicious nature he may be disappointed of his desire.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Giacomo of Pupil of Leonardo]\n\n121.\n\nOn the 23d of April, 1490, I began this book; and started again on the\nhorse.  Giacomo came to live with me on Saint Mary Magdalen's day in\n1490; {49} he was ten years old.  He was a thief, a liar, obstinate,\nand a glutton.  On the second day I had two shirts made for him, a pair\nof socks and a jerkin, and when I placed the money aside to pay for\nthese things, he stole it out of the purse and I could never force him\nto confess the fact, though I was quite certain of it--4 lire.  On the\nfollowing day I went to sup with Giacomo Andrea, and this same Giacomo\nsupped for two and did mischief for four, since he broke three bottles,\nspilled the wine, and after this came to sup where I...  Item: on the\n7th of September he stole a silver point, worth twelve soldi, from\nMarco, who was living with me, and took it from his studio; and when\nMarco had looked for it for some time he found it hidden in Giacomo's\nbox--lire 1, soldi 2.  Item: on the 26th of the following January,\nbeing in the house of Messer Galeazzo di San Severino, in order to\narrange the festivity of his joust, and certain henchmen having\nundressed to try on the costumes of rustics who were to take part in\nthe aforesaid festivity, Giacomo took the purse of one of them, which\nwas on the bed with other clothes, and stole the money he found in\nit--2 lire, 4 soldi.  Item: Maestro Agostino of Padua gave me while I\nwas in the same house a Turkish hide to have a pair of shoes made of\nit, and Giacomo stole this from me within a month and sold it to a\ncobbler for 20 soldi, with which money by his own confession he bought\nsweets of aniseed.  Item: {50} again, on the 2d of April, Giovanni\nAntonio left a silver point on one of his drawings, and Giacomo stole\nit; it was worth 24 soldi,--1 lire, 4 soldi.  The first year a cloak, 2\nlire; six shirts, 4 lire; three doublets, 6 lire: four pairs of socks,\n7 lire, 8 soldi.\n\n\n122.\n\nAnd in this case I know that I shall make not a few enemies, since no\none will believe what I say of him; because there are but few whom his\nvices have disgusted, indeed they only disgusted those men whose\nnatures are contrary to such vices; and many hate their fathers and\nbreak off friendship with those who reprove their vices, and they will\nhave no examples brought up against them, nor tolerate any advice.  And\nif you meet with any one who is good and virtuous drive him not away\nfrom you, do him honour, so that he may not have to flee from you and\nhide in hermitages, or caverns and other solitary spots, in order to\nescape from your treachery; and if there be such an one do him honour,\nbecause these are your gods upon earth, they deserve statues from you\nand images ... but remember that you are not to eat their images, as is\npractised still in some parts of India, where, when images have\nperformed some miracle, the priests cut them in pieces (since they are\nof wood) and distribute them among the people of the country, not {51}\nwithout payment, and each one grates his portion very fine and puts it\nupon the first food he eats; and thus they believe that they have eaten\ntheir saint by faith, who will preserve them from all perils.  What is\nthy opinion, O man, of thy own species?  Art thou so wise as thou\nbelievest to be?  Are these things to be done by men?\n\n\n[Sidenote: Pleasure and Pain]\n\n123.\n\nThis represents pleasure together with pain because one is never\nseparated from the other; they are depicted back to back because they\nare opposed to each other; they are represented in one body because\nthey have the same basis, because the source of pleasure is labour\nmingled with pain, and the pain issues from the various evil pleasures.\nAnd it is therefore represented with a reed in its right hand which is\nineffectual and devoid of strength, and the wounds inflicted by it are\npoisonous.  In Tuscany such reeds are placed to support beds, to\nsignify that this is the place of idle dreams, that here a great part\nof life is consumed, here much useful time is wasted, that is, the\nmorning hours when the mind is sober and rested and the body disposed\nto start on fresh labours; there, again, many vain pleasures are\nenjoyed by the mind, which pictures to itself impossible things, and by\nthe body, which indulges in those pleasures that are so often the cause\nof the {52} failing of life; and for this reason the reed is used as\ntheir support.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Brain and Soul]\n\n124.\n\nThe spirit returns to the brain whence it had departed, with a loud\nvoice and uttering these words:\n\nO blissful and fortunate spirit, whence comest thou?  I have known this\nman well, against my will.  He is a receptacle of villainy, he is a\nvery heap of the highest ingratitude combined with all the other vices.\nBut why should I tire myself with vain words?  Nothing is to be found\nin him save the accumulation of all sins, and if there is to be found\namong them any that possess good, they will not be treated differently\nthan I have been by other men; in short I have come to the conclusion\nthat they are bad if they are enemies, and worse if they are friends.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of the Eye]\n\n125.\n\nThe eye, which reflects the beauty of the universe to those who see, is\nso excellent a thing that he who consents to its loss deprives himself\nof the spectacle of the works of nature; and it is owing to this\nspectacle, effected by means of the eye, which enables the soul to\nbehold the various objects of nature, that the soul is content to\nremain in the prison of the body; but he who loses his eyesight leaves\nthe soul in a dark prison, where {53} all hope of once more beholding\nthe sun, the light of the whole world, is lost....  And how many are\nthey who feel great hatred for the darkness of night, although it is\nbrief.  Oh! what would they do were they constrained to abide in this\ndarkness during the whole of their life?  Certainly there is no one who\nwould not rather lose his hearing or his sense of smell than his\neyesight, and the loss of hearing includes the loss of all sciences\nwhich find expression in words; and this loss a man would incur solely\nso as not to be deprived of the sight of the beauty of the world which\nconsists in the surfaces of bodies artificial as well as natural, which\nare reflected in the human eye.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Eye in Animal Life]\n\n126.\n\nAnimals suffer greater loss in losing their sight than their hearing\nfor many reasons: firstly, because it is by means of their sight that\nthey find the food which is their nourishment, and is necessary for all\nanimals; secondly, because by means of sight the beauty of created\nthings is apprehended, especially those which lead to love, while he\nwho is born blind cannot apprehend such beauty by hearing, because he\nhas never received any knowledge as to what is beauty of any kind.\nThere remains hearing, by which I mean only the human voice and speech;\nthey contain the names of all things whatsoever.  It is possible to\nlive happily without the knowledge of these {54} words, as is seen in\nthose who are born deaf, that is to say, the dumb, who take delight in\ndrawing.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Ascension of Monte Rosa]\n\n127.\n\nI say that the azure we see in the atmosphere is not its true colour,\nbut is caused by warm moisture evaporated in minute and insensible\natoms which the solar rays strike, rendering them luminous against the\ndarkness of the infinite night of the fiery region which lies beyond\nand includes them.  And this may be seen, as I saw it, by him who\nascends Mounboso (Monte Rosa), a peak of the Alps which separates\nFrance from Italy.  The base of this mountain gives birth to the four\nlarge rivers which in four different directions water the whole of\nEurope; and no mountain has its base at so great a height as this.  It\nrises to such a height that it almost lifts itself up above the clouds;\nsnow seldom falls on it, but only hail in summer, when the clouds are\nat their greatest height, and this hail is preserved there so that were\nit not for the absorption of the rising and falling clouds, which does\nnot occur twice in an age, a great quantity of ice would be piled up\nthere by the hail, which in the middle of July I found to be very\nconsiderable; and I saw above me the dark air, and the sun which struck\nthe mountain shone far lighter than in the plains below, because a\nlesser quantity of atmosphere lay between the summit of the mountain\nand the sun.\n\n{55}\n\n[Sidenote: Prophecies]\n\n128.\n\nMen will communicate with each other from the most distant countries,\nand reply.\n\nMany will abandon their own habitations and take with them their own\ngoods, and go and inhabit other countries.\n\nMen will pursue the thing which they most greatly fear; that is to say,\nthey will be miserable in order to avoid falling into misery.\n\nMen standing in separate hemispheres will converse with each other,\nembrace each other, and understand each other's language.\n\n\n129.\n\nWe should not desire the impossible.\n\n\n\n\n{59}\n\nII\n\nTHOUGHTS ON ART\n\n     * *\n      *\n\n[Sidenote: Painting declines when aloof from Nature]\n\nThe painter's work will be of little merit if he takes the painting of\nothers as his standard, but if he studies from nature he will produce\ngood fruits; as is seen in the case of the painters of the age after\nthe Romans, who continued to imitate one another and whose art\nconsequently declined from age to age.  After these came Giotto the\nFlorentine, who was born in the lonely mountains, inhabited only by\ngoats and similar animals; and he, being drawn to his art by nature,\nbegan to draw on the rocks the doings of the goats of which he was the\nkeeper; and thus he likewise began to draw all the animals which he met\nwith in the country: so that after long study he surpassed not only all\nthe masters of his age, but all those of many past centuries.  After\nhim art relapsed once more, because all artists imitated the painted\npictures, and thus from century to century it went on declining, until\nTomaso the Florentine, called Masaccio, proved by his perfect work that\nthey who set up for themselves a standard other than nature, the\nmistress of all masters, labour in vain.\n\n{60}\n\nThus I wish to say, in regard to these mathematical matters, that they\nwho merely study the masters and not the works of nature are the\ngrandchildren, and not the children, of nature, the mistress of good\nmasters.  I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of\nnature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Its Origin]\n\n2.\n\nThe first picture was a single line, drawn round the shadow of a man\ncast by the sun on the wall.\n\n\n3.\n\nVastness of the field of painting: All that is visible is included in\nthe science of painting.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Defence of Painting]\n\n4.\n\nWith due lamentation Painting complains that it has been expelled from\nthe liberal arts, because it is the true daughter of nature and is\npractised by means of the most worthy of the senses.  Whence wrongly, O\nwriters, you have excluded painting from the liberal arts, since it not\nonly includes in its range the works of nature, but also infinite\nthings which nature never created.\n\n\n5.\n\nBecause writers have had no knowledge of the science of painting, they\nhave not been able to {61} describe its gradations and parts, and since\npainting itself does not reveal itself nor its artistic work in words,\nit has remained, owing to ignorance, behind the sciences mentioned\nabove, but it has thereby lost nothing of its divinity.  And truly it\nis not without reason that men have failed to honour it, because it\ndoes honour to itself without the aid of the speech of others, just as\ndo the excellent works of nature.  And if the painters have not\ndescribed the art of painting, and reduced it to a science, the fault\nmust not be imputed to painting and it is no less noble on that\naccount, since few painters profess a knowledge of letters, as their\nlife would not be long enough for them to acquire such knowledge.\nTherefore we ask, Is the virtue of herbs, stones and plants\nnon-existent because men have been ignorant of it?  Certainly not; but\nwe will say that these herbs remained noble in themselves without the\naid of human tongues or letters.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painting]\n\n6.\n\nA science is more useful in proportion as its fruits are more widely\nunderstood, and thus, on the other hand, it is less useful in\nproportion as it is less widely understood.  The fruits of painting can\nbe apprehended by all the populations of the universe because its\nresults are subject to the power of sight, and it does not pass by the\near to the brain, but by the same channel by which {62} sight passes.\nTherefore it needs no interpreters of diverse tongues, as letters do,\nand it has instantly satisfied the human race in the same manner as the\nworks of nature have done.  And not only the human race, but other\nanimals; as was shown in a picture representing the father of a family\nto whom little children still in the cradle gave caresses, as did the\ndog and the cat in the same house; and it was a wonderful thing to see\nsuch a sight.\n\n\n7.\n\nThe arts which admit of exact reproduction are such that the disciple\nis on the same level as the creator, and so it is with their fruits.\nThese are useful to the imitator, but are not of such high excellence\nas those which cannot be transmitted as an inheritance like other\nsubstances.  Among these painting is the first.  Painting cannot be\ntaught to him on whom nature has not conferred the gift of receiving\nsuch knowledge, as mathematics can be taught, of which the disciple\nreceives as much as the master gives him; it cannot be copied, as\nletters can be, in which the copy equals the original; it cannot be\nstamped, in the same way as sculpture, in which the impression is in\nproportion to the source as regards the quality of the work; it does\nnot generate countless children, as do printed books.  It alone remains\nnoble, it alone confers honour on its author and remains precious {63}\nand unique, and does not beget children equal to itself.  And it is\nmore excellent by reason of this quality than by reason of those which\nare everywhere proclaimed.  Now do we not see the great monarchs of the\nEast going about veiled and covered up from the fear of diminishing\ntheir glory by the manifestation and the divulgation of their presence?\nand do we not see that the pictures which represent the divine deity\nare kept covered up with inestimable veils? their unveiling is preceded\nby great sacred solemnities with various chants and diverse music, and\nwhen they are unveiled, the vast multitude of people who are there\nflocked together, immediately prostrate themselves and worship and\ninvoke those whom such pictures represent that they may regain their\nlost holiness and win eternal salvation, just as if the deity were\npresent in the flesh.  This does not occur in any other art or work of\nman.  And if you say that is owing to the nature of the subject\ndepicted rather than to the genius of the painter, the answer is that\nthe mind of man could satisfy itself equally well in this case, were\nthe man to remain in bed and not make pilgrimages to places which are\nperilous and hard of access, as we so often see is the case.  But if\nsuch pilgrimages continually exist, what is then their unnecessary\ncause?  You will certainly admit that it is an image of this kind, and\nall the writings in the world could not succeed in representing the\n{64} semblance and the power of such a deity.  Therefore it appears\nthat this deity takes pleasure in the pictures and is pleased that it\nshould be loved and revered, and takes a greater delight in being\nworshipped in that rather than in any other semblance of itself, and by\nreason of this it bestows grace and gifts of salvation according to the\nbelief of those who meet together in such a place.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painting excels all the Works of Man]\n\n8.\n\nThe eye, which is called the window of the soul, is the principal means\nby which the brain can most abundantly and splendidly contemplate the\ninfinite works of nature; and the ear is the next in order, which is\nennobled by hearing the recital of the things seen by the eye.  If you,\nhistorians and poets, or mathematicians, had not seen things with the\neyes, you could not report of them in writing.  If thou, O poet, dost\ntell a story with thy painting pen, the painter will more easily give\nsatisfaction in telling it with his brush and in a manner less tedious\nand more easily understood.  And if thou callest painting mute poetry,\nthe painter can call poetry blind painting.  Now consider which is the\ngreater loss, to be blind or dumb?  Though the poet is as free as the\npainter in his creations and compositions, they are not so satisfactory\nto men as paintings, because if poetry is able to describe forms,\nactions and places in words, the painter deals with the very {65}\nsemblance of forms in order to represent them.  Now consider which is\nnearer to man, the name of man or the image of man?  The name of man\nvaries in diverse countries, but death alone changes his form.  If thou\nwast to say that painting is more lasting, I answer that the works of a\ncoppersmith, which time preserves longer than thine or ours, are more\neternal still.  Nevertheless there is but little invention in it, and\npainting on copper with colours of enamel is far more lasting.\n\nWe by our art can be called the grandsons of God.  If poetry deals with\nmoral philosophy, painting deals with natural philosophy; if poetry\ndescribes the action of the contemplative mind, painting represents the\neffect in motion of the action of the mind; if poetry terrifies people\nwith the pictures of Hell, painting does the same by depicting the same\nthings in action.  If a poet challenges the painter to represent\nbeauty, fierceness, or an evil, an ugly or a monstrous thing, whatever\nvariety of forms he may produce in his way, the painter will cause\ngreater satisfaction.  Are there not pictures to be seen so like\nreality that they deceive men and animals?\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painting creates Reality]\n\n9.\n\nThe imagination is to the effect as the shadow to the opaque body which\ncauses the shadow, and the proportion is the same between poetry and\npainting.  Because poetry produces its results in the {66} imagination\nof the reader, and painting produces them in a concrete reality outside\nthe eye, so that the eye receives its images just as if they were the\nworks of nature; and poetry produces its results without images, and\nthey do not pass to the brain through the channel of the visual\nfaculty, as in painting.\n\n\n10.\n\nPainting represents to the brain the works of nature with greater truth\nand accuracy than speech or writing, but letters represent words with\ngreater truth, which painting does not do.  But we say that the science\nwhich represents the works of nature is more wonderful than that which\nrepresents the works of the artificer, that is to say, the works of\nman, which consist of words--such as poetry and the like--which issue\nfrom the tongue of man.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Painter goes to Nature]\n\n11.\n\nPainting ministers to a nobler sense than poetry, depicts the forms of\nthe works of nature with greater truth than poetry; and the works of\nnature are nobler than the words which are the works of man, because\nthere is the same proportion between the works of man and those of\nnature as there is between man and God.  Therefore it is a more worthy\nthing to imitate the works of nature, which are the true images\nembodied in reality, than to imitate the actions and the words of men.\n\n{67}\n\nAnd if thou, O poet, wishest to describe the works of nature by thine\nunaided art, and dost represent various places and the forms of diverse\nobjects, the painter surpasses thee by an infinite degree of power; but\nif thou wishest to have recourse to the aid of other sciences, apart\nfrom poetry, they are not thy own; for instance, astrology, rhetoric,\ntheology, philosophy, geometry, arithmetic and the like.  Thou art not\nthen a poet any longer.  Thou transformest thyself, and art no longer\nthat of which we are speaking.  Now seest thou not that if thou wishest\nto go to nature, thou reachest her by the means of science, deduced by\nothers from the effects of nature?  And the painter, through himself\nalone, without the aid of aught appertaining to the various sciences,\nor by any other means, achieves directly the imitation of the things of\nnature.  By painting, lovers are attracted to the images of the beloved\nto converse with the depicted semblance.  By painting whole populations\nare led with fervent vows to seek the image of the deities, and not to\nsee the books of poets which represent the same deities in speech; by\npainting animals are deceived.  I once saw a picture which deceived a\ndog by the image of its master, which the dog greeted with great joy;\nand likewise I have seen dogs bark at and try to bite painted dogs; and\na monkey make a number of antics in front of a painted monkey.  I have\nseen swallows fly and alight on painted {68} iron-works which jut out\nof the windows of buildings.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Superiority of Painting to Philosophy]\n\n12.\n\nPainting includes in its range the surface, colour and shape of\nanything created by nature; and philosophy penetrates into the same\nbodies and takes note of their essential virtue, but it is not\nsatisfied with that truth, as is the painter, who seizes hold of the\nprimary truth of such bodies because the eye is less prone to deception.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painting & Poetry]\n\n13.\n\nPoetry surpasses painting in the representation of words, and in the\nrepresentation of actions painting excels poetry; and painting is to\npoetry as actions are to words, because actions depend on the eye and\nwords on the ear; and thus the senses are in the same proportion one to\nanother as the objects on which they depend; and on this account I\nconsider painting to be superior to poetry.  But since those who\npractised painting were for long ignorant as to how to explain its\ntheory, it lacked advocates for a considerable time; because it does\nnot speak itself, but reveals itself and ends in action, and poetry\nends in words, which in its vainglory it employs for self-praise.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painting is Mute Poetry]\n\n14.\n\nWhat poet will place before thee in words, O {69} lover, the true\nsemblance of thy idea with such truth as will the painter?  Who is he\nwho will show thee rivers, woods, valleys and plains, which will recall\nto thee the pleasures of the past, with greater truth than the painter?\nAnd if thou sayest that painting is mute poetry in itself, unless there\nbe some one to speak for it and tell what it represents--seest thou\nnot, then, that thy book is on a lower plane?  Because even if it have\na man to speak for it, nothing of the subject which is related can be\nseen, as it is seen when a picture is explained.  And the pictures, if\nthe action represented and the mental attributes of the figures are in\nthe true proportion one to another, will be understood in the same way\nas if they spoke.\n\n\n15.\n\nPainting is mute poetry, and poetry is blind painting.  Therefore these\ntwo forms of poetry, or rather these two forms of painting, have\nexchanged the senses through which they should reach the intellect.\nBecause if they are both of them painting, they must reach the brain by\nthe noblest sense, namely, the eye; if they are both of them poetry,\nthey must reach the brain by the less noble sense, that is, the\nhearing.  Therefore we will appoint the man born deaf to be judge of\npainting, and the man born blind to be judge of poetry; and if in the\npainting the movements are appropriate {70} to the mental attributes of\nthe figures which is are engaged in any kind of action, there is no\ndoubt that the deaf man will understand the action and intentions of\nthe figures, but the blind man will never understand what the poet\nshows, and what constitutes the glory of the poetry; since one of the\nnoblest functions of its art is to describe the deeds and the subjects\nof stories, and adorned and delectable places with transparent waters\nin which the green recesses of their course can be seen as the waves\ndisport themselves over meadows and fine pebbles, and the plants which\nare mingled with them, and the gliding fishes, and similar\ndescriptions, which might just as well be made to a stone as to a man\nborn blind, since he has never seen that which composes the beauty of\nthe world, that is, light, darkness, colour, body, shape, place,\ndistance, propinquity, motion and rest, which are the ten ornaments of\nnature.\n\nBut the deaf man, lacking the less noble sense, although he has at the\nsame time lost the gift of speech, since never having heard words\nspoken he never has been able to learn any language, will nevertheless\nperfectly understand every attribute of the human body better than a\nman who can speak and hear; and likewise he will know the works of\npainters and what is represented in them, and the action which is\nappropriate to such figures.\n\n{71}\n\n[Sidenote: Painting is Mute Poetry]\n\n16.\n\nPainting is mute poetry, and poetry is blind painting, and both imitate\nnature to the best of their powers, and both can demonstrate moral\nprinciples, as Apelles did in his Calumny.  And since painting\nministers to the most noble of the senses, the eye, a harmonious\nproportion ensues from it, that is to say, that just as from the\nconcord of many diverse voices at the same moment there ensues a\nwell-proportioned harmony which will please the sense of hearing to\nsuch an extent that the listeners in dizzy admiration are like men half\nravished of their senses, still greater will be the effect of the\nbeautiful proportions of a celestial face in a picture from whose\nproportions a harmonious concord will ensue, which delights the eye in\none moment, just as music delights the ear.  And if this harmonious\nbeauty is shown to one who is the lover of the woman from whom such\ngreat beauty has been copied, he will most certainly be struck dizzy\nwith admiration and incomparable joy superior to that afforded by all\nthe other senses.\n\nBut with regard to poetry, which in order to afford the representation\nof a perfect beauty is obliged to describe each separate part in\ndetail,--a representation which in painting produces the harmony\ndescribed above,--no further charm is produced than would occur in\nmusic if each voice {72} were to be heard separately at various\nintervals of time, whence no concord would ensue; just as if we wished\nto show a countenance bit by bit, always covering up the parts already\nshown, forgetfulness would prevent the production of any harmonious\nconcord, since the eye could not apprehend the parts with its visual\nfaculty at the same moment.  The same thing occurs in the beauty of any\nobject created by the poet, for as its parts are related separately, at\nseparate times the memory receives no harmony from it.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Impression of Painting]\n\n17.\n\nPainting reveals itself immediately to thee with the semblance given it\nby its creator, and affords to the chief of the senses as great a\ndelight as any object created by nature.  And the poet in this case\nreveals the same objects to the brain by the channel of the hearing,\nthe inferior sense, and affords the eye no more pleasure than it\nderives from anything which is related.  Now consider what a difference\nthere is between hearing the recital of a thing which in the course of\ntime gives pleasure to the eye, and perceiving it with the same\nvelocity with which we apprehend the works of nature.\n\nAnd in addition to the fact that a long interval of time is necessary\nto read the works of the poets, it often occurs that they are not\nunderstood, and it is necessary to make diverse {73} comments on them,\nand it is exceedingly rare that the commentators are agreed as to the\nmeaning of the poet; and often the readers peruse but a small portion\nof their works, owing to lack of time.  But the works of the painter\nare immediately understood by those who behold them.\n\n\n18.\n\nPainting manifests its essence to thee in an instant of time,--its\nessence by the visual faculty, the very means by which the perception\napprehends natural objects, and in the same duration of time,--and in\nthis space of time the sense-satisfying harmony of the proportion of\nthe parts composing the whole is formed.  And poetry apprehends the\nsame things, but by a sense inferior to that of the eyesight, which\nbears the images of the objects named to the perception with greater\nconfusion and less speed.  Not in such wise acts the eye (the true\nintermediary between the object and the perception), for it immediately\ncommunicates the true semblance and image of what is represented before\nit with the greatest accuracy; whence that proportion arises called\nharmony, which with sweet concord delights the sense in the same way as\nthe harmony of diverse voices delights the ear; and this harmony is\nless worthy than that which delights the eye, because for every part of\nit that is born a part dies, and it dies as fast as it is born.  This\n{74} cannot occur in the case of the eye; because if thou presentest a\nbeautiful living mortal to the eye, composed of a harmony of fair\nlimbs, its beauty is not so transient nor so quickly destroyed as that\nof music; on the contrary it has permanent duration, and allows thee to\nbehold and consider it; and it is not reborn as in the case of music\nwhich is played many times over, nor will it weary thee: on the\ncontrary, thou becomest enamoured with it, and the result it produces\nis that all the senses, together with the eye, would wish to possess\nit, and it seems that they would wish to compete with the eye: it\nappears that the mouth desires it for itself, if the mouth can be\nconsidered as a sense; the ear takes pleasure in hearing its beauty;\nthe sense of touch would like to penetrate into all its pores; the nose\nalso would like to receive the air it exhales.\n\nTime in a few years destroys this harmony, but this does not occur in\nthe case of beauty depicted by the painter, because time preserves it\nfor long; and the eye, as far as its function is concerned, receives as\nmuch pleasure from the depicted as from the living beauty; touch alone\nis lacking to the painted beauty,--touch, which is the elder brother of\nsight; which after it has attained its purpose does not prevent the\nreason from considering the divine beauty.  And in this case the\npicture copied from the living beauty acts for the greater part as a\nsubstitute; and the {75} description of the poet cannot accomplish\nthis.--the poet who is now set up as a rival to the painter, but does\nnot perceive that time sets a division between the words in which he\ndescribes the various parts of the beauty, and that forgetfulness\nintervenes and divides the proportions which he cannot name without\ngreat prolixity; he cannot compose the harmonious concord which is\nformed of divine proportions.  And on this account beauty cannot be\ndescribed in the same space of time in which a painted beauty can be\nseen, and it is a sin against nature to attempt to transmit by the ear\nthat which should be transmitted by the eye.\n\nWhat prompts thee, O man, to abandon thy habitations in the city, to\nleave thy parents and friends, and to seek rural spots in the mountains\nand valleys, if it be not the natural beauty of the world, which, if\nthou reflectest, thou dost enjoy solely by means of the sense of sight?\nAnd if the poet wishes to be called a painter in this connection also,\nwhy didst thou not take the descriptions of places made by the poet and\nremain at home without exposing thyself to the heat of the sun?  Oh!\nwould not this have been more profitable and less fatiguing to thee,\nsince this can be done in the cool without motion and danger of\nillness?  But the soul could not enjoy the benefit of the eyes, the\nwindows of its dwelling, and it could not note the character of joyous\n{76} places; it could not see the shady valleys watered by the\nsportiveness of the winding rivers; it could not see the various\nflowers, which with their colours make a harmony for the eye, and all\nthe other objects which the eye can apprehend.  But if the painter in\nthe cold and rigorous season of winter can evoke for thee the\nlandscapes, variegated and otherwise, in which thou didst experience\nthy happiness; if near some fountain thou canst see thyself, a lover\nwith thy beloved, in the flowery fields, under the soft shadow of the\nbudding boughs, wilt thou not experience a greater pleasure than in\nhearing the same effect described by the poet?\n\nHere the poet answers, admitting these arguments; but he maintains that\nhe surpasses the painter, because he causes men to speak and reason in\ndiverse fictions, in which he invents things which do not exist, and\nthat he will incite men to take arms, and describe the heavens, the\nstars, nature, and the arts and everything.\n\nTo which we reply that none of these things of which he speaks is his\ntrue profession; but if he wishes to speak and make orations, it can be\nshown that he is surpassed by the orator in this province; and if he\nspeaks of astrology, that he has stolen the subject of the astrologer;\nand in the case of philosophy, of the philosopher; and that in reality\npoetry has no true position and merits no more consideration than a\nshopkeeper {77} who collects goods made by various workmen.  As soon as\nthe poet ceases to represent by means of words the phenomena of nature,\nhe then ceases to act as a painter, because if the poet leaves such\nrepresentation and describes the flowery and persuasive speech of him\nto whom he wishes to give speech, he then becomes an orator, and\nneither a poet nor a painter; and if he speaks of the heavens he\nbecomes an astrologer, and a philosopher and a theologian if he\ndiscourses of nature or God; but if he returns to the description of\nany object he would rival the painter, if with words he could satisfy\nthe eye as the painter does.\n\nBut the spirit of the science of painting deals with all works, human\nas well as divine, which are terminated by their surfaces, that is, the\nlines of the limits of bodies by means of which the sculptor is\nrequired to achieve perfection in his art.  She with her fundamental\nrules, i.e. drawing, teaches the architect how to work so that his\nbuilding may be pleasant to the eye; she teaches the makers of diverse\nvases, the goldsmiths, weavers, embroiderers; she has found the\ncharacters with which diverse languages find expression; she has given\nsymbols to the mathematicians; she has taught geometry its figures, and\ninstructed the astrologers, the makers of machines and engineers.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Poet and Painter]\n\n19.\n\nThe poet says that his science consists of {78} invention and rhythm,\nand this is the simple body of poetry, invention as regards the subject\nmatter and rhythm as regards the verse, which he afterwards clothes\nwith all the sciences.  To which the painter rejoins that he is\ngoverned by the same necessities in the science of painting, that is to\nsay, invention and measure (fancy as regards the subject matter which\nhe must invent, and measure as regards the matters painted), so that\nthey may be in proportion, but that he does not make use of three\nsciences; on the contrary it is rather the other sciences that make use\nof painting, as, for instance, astrology, which effects nothing without\nthe aid of perspective, the principal link of painting,--that is,\nmathematical astronomy and not fallacious astrology (let those who by\nreason of the existence of fools make a profession of it, forgive me).\nThe poet says he describes an object, that he represents another full\nof beautiful allegory; the painter says he is capable of doing the\nsame, and in this respect he is also a poet.  And if the poet says he\ncan incite men to love, which is the most important fact among every\nkind of animal, the painter can do the same, all the more so because he\npresents the lover with the image of his beloved; and the lover often\ndoes with it what he would not do with the writer's delineation of the\nsame charms, i.e. talk with it and kiss it; so great is the painter's\ninfluence on the minds of men that he incites them to love and {79}\nbecome enamoured of a picture which does not represent any living woman.\n\nAnd if the poet pleases the sense by means of the ear, the painter does\nso by the eye, which is the superior sense.  I will enlarge no further\non this theme save to say that if a good painter were to represent the\nfury of a battle, and if the poet were to describe one, and both\nrepresentations were put before the public together, you will see\nbefore which of the two most of the spectators will stop, to which of\nthe two they will pay most attention, which of the two will be the most\npraised and give the greater satisfaction.  Without any doubt, the\npainting, being infinitely the most beautiful and useful, will please\nthe most.  Write the name of God in some spot, and set up His image\nopposite, and you will see which will be the most reverenced.  While\npainting embraces in itself all the forms of nature, you have nothing\nsave words, which are not universal, like forms.  If you have the\neffects of the representation, we have the representation of the\neffects.  Take a poet who describes the charms of a woman to her lover,\nand a painter who represents her, and you will see whither nature leads\nthe enamoured critic.  Certainly the proof should rest on the verdict\nof experience.  You have classed painting among the mechanical arts,\nbut, truly, if painters were as apt at praising their own works in\nwriting as you are, it would not lie under the stigma {80} of so\nunhonoured an name.  If you call it mechanical because it is by manual\nwork and that the hand represents the conception of the imagination,\nyou writers put down with the pen the conceptions of your mind.  And if\nyou say that it is mechanical because it is done for money, who is more\nguilty of this error--if error it can be called--than you?  If you\nlecture in the schools, do you not go to whomsoever rewards you most?\nDo you perform any work without some pay?  Although I do not say this\nto blame such opinions, because all labour expects its reward; and if a\npoet were to say: \"I will devise with my fancy a work which shall be\npregnant with meaning,\" the painter can do the same, as Apelles did\nwhen he painted The Calumny.\n\n\n[Sidenote: King Matthias & the Poet]\n\n20.\n\nOn the birthday of King Matthias, a poet brought him a work made in\npraise of the royal birthday for the benefit of the world, and a\npainter presented him with a portrait of his lady-love.  The king\nimmediately shut the book of the poet and turned to the picture, and\nremained gazing on it with profound admiration.  Then the poet, greatly\nslighted, said: \"O king, read, read, and thou wilt hear something of\nfar greater substance than a dumb picture!\"  Then the king, hearing\nhimself blamed for contemplating a mute object, said: \"O poet, be\nsilent, thou knowest not what thou {81} sayest; this picture gratifies\na nobler sense than thy work, which is for the blind.  Give me an\nobject which I can see and touch and not only hear, and blame not my\nchoice in having placed thy work beneath my elbow, while I hold the\nwork of the painter with both my hands before my eyes, because my very\nhands have chosen to serve a worthier sense than that of hearing.\n\n\"And as for my self I consider that the same proportion exists between\nthe art of the painter and that of the poet as that which exists\nbetween the two senses on which they respectively depend.\n\n\"Knowest thou not that our soul is composed of harmony, and harmony can\nonly be begotten in the moments when the proportions of objects are\nsimultaneously visible and audible?  Seest thou not that in thine art\nthere is no harmony created in a moment, and that, on the contrary,\neach part follows from the other in succession, and the second is not\nborn before its predecessor dies.  For this reason I consider thy\ncreation to be considerably inferior to that of the painter, simply\nbecause no harmonious concord ensues from it.  It does not satisfy the\nmind of the spectator or the listener, as the harmony of the perfect\nfeatures which compose the divine beauty of this face which is before\nme; for the features united all together simultaneously afford me a\npleasure which I consider to be unsurpassed by any other thing on the\nearth which is made by man.\"\n\n{82}\n\n[Sidenote: Value of the Visible Universe]\n\n21.\n\nThere is no one so foolish who if offered the choice between\neverlasting blindness and deafness would not immediately elect to lose\nboth his hearing and sense of smell rather than to be blind.  Since he\nwho loves his sight is deprived of the beauty of the world and all\ncreated things, and the deaf man loves only the sound made by the\npercussion of the air, which is an insignificant thing in the world.\n\nThou sayest that science increases in nobility in proportion as the\nsubjects with which it deals are more elevated, and, for this reason, a\nfalse rendering of the being of God is better than the portrayal of a\nless worthy object; and on this account we will say that painting,\nwhich deals alone with the works of God, is worth more than poetry,\nwhich deals solely with the lying imaginings of human devices.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Poet and Painter]\n\n22.\n\nThou sayest, O painter, that worship is paid to thy work, but impute\nnot this power to thyself, but to the subject which such a picture\nrepresents.  Here the painter makes answer: O thou poet, who sayest\nthat thou also art an imitator, why dost thou not represent with thy\nwords objects of such a nature that thy writings which contain these\nwords may be worshipped also?  But nature has favoured the painter more\nthan the poet, {83} and it is fair that the works of the more greatly\nfavoured one should be more honoured than those of the less favoured\none.  Therefore let us praise him who with words satisfies the hearing,\nand him who by painting affords perfect content to the eyes; but let\nthe praise given to the worker in words be less, inasmuch as they are\naccidental and created by a less worthy author than the works of nature\nof which the painter is the imitator.  And the existence of these works\nis confined within the forms of their surfaces.\n\n\n23.\n\nSince we have concluded that the utmost extent of the comprehension of\npoetry is for the blind, and that of painting for the deaf, we will say\nthat the value of painting exceeds that of poetry in proportion as\npainting gratifies a nobler sense than poetry does, and this nobility\nhas been proved to be equal to that of three other senses, because we\nelect to lose our sense of hearing, smell and touch rather than our\neyesight.  For he who loses his sight is deprived of the beauty of the\nuniverse, and is like to one who is confined during his lifetime in a\ntomb, in which he enjoys life and motion.\n\nNow seest thou not that the eye comprehends the beauty of the whole\nworld?  It is the head of astrology; it creates cosmography; it gives\ncounsel and correction to all the human arts; it impels {84} men to\nseek diverse parts of the world; it is the principle of mathematics;\nits science is most certain; it has measured the height and the\nmagnitude of the stars; it has discovered the elements and their\nabodes; it has been able to predict the events of the future, owing to\nthe course of the stars; it has begotten architecture and perspective\nand divine painting.  O most excellent above all the things created by\nGod!  What praise is there which can express thy nobility?  What\npeoples, what tongues, are they who can perfectly describe thy true\nworking?  It is the window of the human body, through which the soul\ngazes and feasts on the beauty of the world; by reason of it the soul\nis content with its human prison, and without it this human prison is\nits torment; and by means of it human diligence has discovered fire by\nwhich the eye wins back what the darkness has stolen from it.  It has\nadorned nature with agriculture and pleasant gardens.  But what need is\nthere for me to indulge in long and elevated discourse?  What thing is\nthere which acts not by reason of the eye?  It impels men from the East\nto the West; it has discovered navigation; and in this it excels\nnature, because the simple products of the earth are finite and the\nworks which the eye makes over to the hands are infinite, as the\npainter shows in his portrayal of countless forms of animals, herbs,\nplants and places.\n\n{85}\n\n[Sidenote: Music the Sister of Painting]\n\n24.\n\nMusic should be given no other name than the sister of painting,\ninasmuch as it is subject to the hearing,--a sense inferior to the\neye,--and it produces harmony by the unison of its proportioned parts,\nwhich are brought into operation at the same moment and are constrained\nto come to life and die in one or more harmonic times; and time is, as\nit were, the circumference of the parts which constitute the harmony,\nin the same way as the outline constitutes the circumference of limbs\nwhence human beauty emanates.\n\nBut painting excels and lords over music because it does not die as\nsoon as it is born, as occurs with music, the less fortunate; on the\ncontrary, it continues to exist and reveals itself to be what it is, a\nsingle surface.  O marvellous science, thou givest lasting life to the\nperished beauty of mortals, which are thus made more enduring than the\nworks of nature, for these undergo forever the changes of time, and\ntime leads them to inevitable old age!  And this science is to divine\nnature as its works are to the works of nature, and on this account it\nis worshipped.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painting & Music]\n\n25.\n\nThe most worthy thing is that which satisfies the most worthy sense;\ntherefore painting, which satisfies the sense of sight, is more worthy\nthan {86} music, which merely satisfies the hearing.  The most worthy\nthing is that which endures longest; therefore music, which is\ncontinually dying as soon as it is born, is less worthy than painting,\nwhich lasts eternally with the colours of enamel.  The most excellent\nthing is that which is the most universal and contains the greatest\nvariety of things; therefore painting must be set above all other arts,\nbecause it contains all the forms which exist and also those which are\nnot in nature, and it should be glorified and exalted more than music,\nwhich deals with the voice only.\n\nWith it images are made to the gods; around it divine worship is\nconducted, of which music is a subservient ornament; by means of it\npictures are given to lovers of their beloved; by it the beauties are\npreserved which time, and nature the mother, render fitful; by it we\nretain the images of famous men.  And if thou wert to say that by\ncommitting music to writing you render it eternal, we do the same with\nletters.\n\nTherefore, since thou hast included music among the liberal arts, thou\nmust either exclude it, or include the art of letters.  And if thou\nwast to say: Painting is used by base men, in the same way is music\nspoilt by him who knows it not.  If thou sayest that sciences which are\nnot mechanical are mental, I will answer that painting is mental.  And\njust as music and geometry deal with the proportions of continuous\nquantities, and {87} arithmetic deals with discontinuous quantities,\npainting deals with all quantities and the qualities of the proportions\nof shadows, lights and distances, in its perspective.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painter and Musician]\n\n26.\n\nThe musician says that his art can be compared with that of the painter\nbecause by the art of the painter a body of many members is composed,\nand the spectator apprehends its grace in as many harmonious rhythms\n... as there are times in which it lives and dies; and by these rhythms\n... its grace plays with the soul, which dwells in the body of the\nspectator.  But the painter replies that the body composed of human\nlimbs does not afford the delectable harmonious rhythms in which beauty\nmust live and die, but renders it permanent for many years, and is of\nsuch great excellence that it preserves the life of this harmony of\nconcordant limbs which nature with all her force could not preserve.\n\nHow many pictures have preserved the semblance of divine beauty of\nwhich time or death had in a brief space destroyed the living example:\nand the work of the painter has become more honoured than that of\nnature, his master!\n\nIf thou, O musician, sayest that painting is mechanical because it is\nwrought by the work of the hands, music is wrought by the mouth, but\n{88} not by the tasting faculties of the mouth; just and as the hand is\nemployed indeed in the case of painting, but not for its faculties of\ntouch.  Words are less worthy than actions.  But thou, writer of\nscience, dost thou not copy with thy hand, and write what is in thy\nmind, as the painter does?  And if thou wast to say that music is\nformed of proportion, by proportion have I wrought painting, as thou\nshalt see.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Poet Painter and Musician]\n\n27.\n\nThere is the same difference between the representation of the embodied\nworks of the painter and those of the poet as there is between complete\nand dismembered bodies, because the poet in describing the beauty or\nthe ugliness of any body reveals it to you limb by limb and at diverse\ntimes, and the painter shows the whole at the same time.  The poet\ncannot express in words the true likeness of the limbs which compose a\nwhole, as can the painter, who places it before you with the truth of\nnature.  And the same thing befalls the poet as the musician, who sings\nby himself a song composed for four singers; and he sings the treble\nfirst, then the tenor, then the alto and then the bass, whence there\nresults no grace of harmonious concord such as harmonious rhythms\nproduce.  And the poet is like a beautiful countenance which reveals\nitself to you feature by feature, that by so doing you may never be\n{89} satisfied by its beauty, which consists of the divine proportion\nof the limbs united one with another, and these compose of themselves\nand at one time the divine harmony of this union of limbs, and often\ndeprives the gazer of his liberty.  Music, again, by its harmonious\nrhythm, produces the sweet melodies formed by its various voices, and\ntheir harmonious division is lacking to the poet; and although poetry\nenters into the abode of the intellect by the channel of the hearing,\nas does music, the poet cannot describe the harmony of music, because\nit is not in his power to say various things in one and the same moment\nas can the harmonious concord of painting, which is composed of various\nmembers which exist simultaneously, and the beauty of these parts is\napprehended at the same time, individually and\ncollectively,--collectively with regard to the whole, individually with\nregard to the component parts of which the whole is formed; and for\nthis reason the poet is, as far as the representation of bodily things\nis concerned, greatly inferior to the painter, and as far as invisible\nthings are concerned he is far behind the musician.  But if the poet\nborrows the aid of the other sciences, he can appear at the fair like\nthe other merchants, bearers of divers goods made by many artificers;\nand the poet does this when he borrows the science of others, such as\nthat of the orator, the philosopher, the astrologer, the cosmographer\nand {90} the like; and these sciences are altogether alien to the poet.\nTherefore he is an agent who brings together diverse persons in order\nto strike a bargain; and if you wish to know the true function of the\npoet, you will find that he is no other than an assembler of goods\nstolen from other sciences, with which he makes a deceptive mixture, or\nmore honestly said, a fictitious mixture.  And with regard to this\nfiction the poet is free to compete with the painter, since it\nconstitutes the least part of the painting.\n\n\n28.\n\nThe painter emulates and competes with nature.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painting a second Creation]\n\n29.\n\nHe who blames painting blames nature, because the works of the painter\nrepresent the works of nature, and for this reason he who blames in\nthis fashion lacks feeling.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Painter Lord of All]\n\n30.\n\nIf the painter wishes to see beautiful things which will enchant him he\nis able to beget them; if he wishes to see monstrous things which\nterrify, or grotesque and laughable things, or truly piteous things, he\ncan dispose of all these; if he wishes to evoke places and deserts,\nshady or dark retreats in the hot season, he represents them, and\nlikewise warm places in the cold season.  If he wishes valleys, if he\nwishes to descry a great {91} plain from the high summits of the\nmountains, and if he wishes after this to see the horizon of the sea,\nhe can do so; and from the low valleys he can gaze on the high\nmountains, or from the high mountains he can scan the low valleys and\nshores; and in truth all quantities of things that exist in the\nuniverse, either real or imaginary, he has first in his mind and then\nin his hands; and these things are of so great excellence that they\nbeget a harmonious concord in one glance, as do the things of nature.\n\n\n31.\n\nWe can safely say that those people are under a delusion who call that\npainter a good master who can only draw well a head or a figure.\nCertainly there is no great merit if, after studying a single thing\nduring a whole lifetime, you attain to a certain degree of perfection\nin it.  But knowing, as we do, that painting includes and comprehends\nall the works produced by nature, or brought about by the fortuitous\naction of man, and in fact everything that the eye can see, he seems to\nme to be a poor master who can only do one thing well.  Now seest thou\nnot how many and diverse acts are performed by men?  Seest thou not how\nmany various animals there are, and likewise trees, plants and flowers;\nwhat a variety of mountainous or level places, fountains, rivers,\ncities, public and private buildings, {92} instruments suitable for\nhuman use; how many diverse costumes and ornaments and arts?  All these\nthings should be considered of equal effect and value when used by the\nman who can be called a good painter.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painting and Nature]\n\n32.\n\nIf you despise painting, which is the only imitator of the visible\nworks of nature, you will certainly despise a subtle invention which\nwith philosophy and subtle speculation apprehends the qualities of\nforms, backgrounds, places, plants, animals, herbs and flowers, which\nare surrounded by light and shade.  And truly this is knowledge and the\nlegitimate offspring of nature, because painting is begotten by nature.\nBut to be correct, we will say that it is the grandchild of nature,\nbecause all visible things are begotten by nature, and these her\nchildren have begotten painting.  Therefore we shall rightly say that\npainting is the grandchild of nature and related to God.\n\n\n33.\n\nWere a master to boast that he could remember all the forms and effects\nof nature, he would certainly appear to me to be graced with great\nignorance, inasmuch as these effects are infinite and our memory is not\nsufficiently capacious to retain them.  Therefore, O painter, beware\nlest in thee the lust of gain should overcome the honour of thy art,\nfor the acquisition of honour is a much {93} greater thing than the\nglory of wealth.  Thus, for this and for other reasons which could be\ngiven, first strive in drawing to express to the eye in a manifest\nshape the idea and the fancy originally devised by thy imagination;\nthen go on adding or removing until thou art satisfied; then arrange\nmen as models, clothed or nude, according to the intention of thy work,\nand see that, as regards dimension and size, in accordance with\nperspective there is no portion of the work which is not in harmony\nwith reason and natural effects, and this will be the way to win honour\nin thy art.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Painting & Sculpture]\n\n34.\n\nI have myself practised the art of sculpture as well as that of\npainting, and I have practised both arts in the same degree.  I think,\ntherefore, that I can give an impartial opinion as to which of the two\nis the most difficult: the most perfect requires the greater talent,\nand is to be preferred.\n\nIn the first place sculpture requires a certain light, that is to say,\na light from above, and painting carries everywhere with it its light\nand shade; sculpture owes its importance to light and shade.  The\nsculptor is aided in this by the relief which is inherent in sculpture,\nand the painter places the light and shade, by the accidental quality\nof his art, in the places where nature would naturally produce it.  The\nsculptor cannot diversify his work by the various colours of objects;\npainting {94} is complete in every respect.  The perspective of the\nsculptor appears to be altogether untrue; that of the painter can give\nthe idea of a distance of a hundred miles beyond the picture.  The\nsculptors have no aerial perspective; they can neither represent\ntransparent bodies nor reflections, nor bodies as lustrous as mirrors,\nand other translucent objects, neither mists nor dark skies, nor an\ninfinity of objects which it would be tedious to enumerate.  The\nadvantage [of sculpture] is that it is provided with a better defence\nagainst the ravages of time, although a picture painted on thick copper\nand covered over with white enamel, painted with enamel colours and\nthen put in the fire again and baked, is equally resistant.  Such a\nwork as far as permanence is concerned exceeds sculpture.  They may say\nthat where an error is made it is not easy to correct it.  It is poor\nreasoning to try and prove that the irremediability of an oversight\nrenders the work more honourable.  But I say to you that it will prove\nmore difficult to mend the mind of the master who commits such errors\nthan to repair the work he has spoilt.  We know well that an\nexperienced and competent artist will not make mistakes of this kind;\non the contrary, acting on sound rules, he will remove so little at a\ntime that his work will be brought to a successful close.  Again, the\nsculptor, if he works in clay or wax, can remove and add, and when the\nwork is finished it can be easily {95} cast in bronze, and this is the\nlast and most permanent operation of sculpture, inasmuch as that which\nis merely of marble is liable to destruction, but this is not the case\nwith bronze.  Therefore the picture painted on copper, which with the\nmethods of painting can be reduced or added to, is like bronze, which\nwhen it was in the state of a wax model could be reduced or added to.\nAnd if sculpture in bronze is durable, this copper and enamel work is\nmore imperishable still; and while the bronze remains black and ugly,\nthis is full of various and delectable colours of infinite variety, as\nwe have described above.  If you wish to confine the discussion to\npainting on panel I am content to pronounce between it and sculpture,\nsaying, that painting is the more beautiful, the more imaginative and\nthe more copious, and that sculpture is more durable, but has no other\nadvantage.  Sculpture with little labour shows what in painting seems\nto be a miraculous thing to do: to make impalpable objects appear\npalpable, to give the semblance of relief to flat objects, and distance\nto objects that are near.  In fact painting is full of infinite\nresources of which sculpture cannot dispose.\n\n\n35.\n\nSculpture is not a science, but a mechanical art, because it causes the\nbrow of the artist who practises it to sweat, and wearies his body; and\nfor {96} such an artist the simple proportions of the limbs, and the\nnature of movements and attitudes, are all that is essential, and there\nit ends, and shows to the eye what it is, and it does not cause the\nspectator to wonder at its nature, as painting does, which in a plane\nby its science shows vast countries and far-off horizons.\n\n\n36.\n\nThe only difference between painting and sculpture is that the sculptor\naccomplishes his work with the greater bodily fatigue, and the painter\nwith the greater mental fatigue.  This is proved by the fact that the\nsculptor in practising his art is obliged to exert his arms and to\nstrike and shatter the marble or other stone, which remains over and\nabove what is needed for the figure which it contains, by manual\nexercise, accompanied often by profuse sweating, mingled with dust and\ntransforming itself into dirt; and his face is plastered and powdered\nwith the dust of the marble, so that he has the appearance of a baker,\nand he is covered with minute chips, and it appears as if snow had\nfallen on him, and his dwelling is dirty and full of chips and the dust\nof stone.\n\nThe contrary occurs in the case of the painter,--we are speaking of\nexcellent painters and sculptors,--since the painter with great leisure\nsits before his work well clothed, and handles the light brush dipped\nin lovely colours.  He wears {97} what garments he pleases; his\ndwelling is full of beautiful pictures, and it is clean; sometimes he\nhas music or readers of diverse and pleasant works, which, without any\nnoise of hammers or other confused sounds, are heard with great\npleasure.\n\n\n37.\n\nThere can be no comparison between the talent, art and theory of\npainting and that of sculpture, which leaves perspective out of\naccount,--perspective which is produced by the quality of the material\nand not of the artist.  And if the sculptor says that he cannot restore\nthe superabundant substance which has once been removed from his work,\nI answer that he who removes too much has but little understanding and\nis no master.  Because if he has mastered the proportions he will not\nremove anything unnecessarily; therefore we will say that this\ndisadvantage is inherent in the artist and not in the material.  But I\nwill not speak of such men, for they are spoilers of marble and not\nartists.\n\nArtists do not trust to the judgement of the eye, because it is always\ndeceptive, as is proved by him who wishes to divide a line into two\nequal parts by the eye, and is often deceived in the experiment;\nwherefore the good judges always fear--a fear which is not shared by\nthe ignorant--to trust to their own judgement, and on this account they\nproceed by continually checking the {98} height, thickness and breadth\nof each part, and by so doing accomplish no more than their duty.  But\npainting is marvellously devised of most subtle analyses, of which\nsculpture is altogether devoid, since its range is of the narrowest.\nTo the sculptor who says that his science is more lasting than that of\npainting, I answer that this permanence is due to the quality of the\nmaterial and not to that of the sculptor, and the sculptor has no right\nto give himself the credit for it, but he should let it redound to\nnature which created the material.\n\n\n38.\n\nPainting has a wider intellectual range and is more wonderful and\ngreater as regards its artistic resources than sculpture, because the\npainter is by necessity constrained to amalgamate his mind with the\nvery mind of nature and to be the interpreter between nature and art,\nmaking with art a commentary on the causes of nature's manifestations\nwhich are the inevitable result of its laws; and showing in what way\nthe likenesses of objects which surround the eye correspond with the\ntrue images of the pupil of the eye, and showing among objects of equal\nsize which of them will appear more or less dark, or more or less\nclear; and among objects equally low which of them will appear more or\nless low; or among those of the same height which of them will appear\nmore or less high; or among objects of equal size {99} placed at\nvarious distances one from the other, why some will appear more clearly\nthan others.  And this art embraces and comprehends within itself all\nvisible things, which sculpture in its poverty cannot do: that is, the\ncolours of all objects and their gradations; it represents transparent\nobjects, and the sculptor will show thee natural objects without the\npainter's devices; the painter will show thee various distances with\nthe gradations of colour producing interposition of the air between the\nobjects and the eye; he will show thee the mists through which the\ncharacter of objects is with difficulty descried; the rains which\nclouded mountains and valleys bring with them; the dust which is\ninherent to and follows the contention between these forces; the rivers\nwhich are great or small in volume; the fishes disporting themselves on\nthe surface or at the bottom of these waters; the polished pebbles of\nvarious colours which are collected on the washed sands at bottom of\nrivers surrounded by floating plants beneath the surface of the water;\nthe stars at diverse heights above us; and in the same manner other\ninnumerable effects to which sculpture cannot attain.\n\n\n39.\n\nSculpture lacks the beauty of colours, the perspective of colours; it\nlacks perspective and it confuses the limits of objects remote from the\n{100} eye, inasmuch as it represents the limits of objects that are\nnear in the same way as those of distant objects; it does not represent\nthe air which, interposed between the eye and the remote object,\nconceals that object but as the veils in draped figures, which reveal\nthe naked flesh beneath them; it cannot represent the small pebbles of\nvarious colours beneath the surface of the transparent waters.\n\n\n[Sidenote: To the Painter]\n\n40.\n\nAnd thou, painter, who desirest to achieve the highest excellence in\npractice, understand that unless thou build it on the solid foundations\nof nature, thou shalt reap but scant honour and gain by thy work; and\nif thy foundation is sound, thy works shall be many and good, and bring\ngreat honour to thee, and be of great profit.\n\n\n41.\n\nWhen the work exceeds the ideal of the artist, the artist makes scant\nprogress; and when the work falls short of his ideal it never ceases to\nimprove, unless avarice be an obstacle.\n\n\n42.\n\nHe is a poor disciple who does not surpass his master.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Counsels]\n\n43.\n\nHe is a poor master whose work is exalted in his {101} own opinion, and\nhe is on the road to perfection in art whose work falls short of his\nideal.\n\n\n44.\n\nSmall rooms or dwellings help the mind to concentrate itself; large\nrooms are a source of distraction.\n\n\n45.\n\nThe painter should be solitary, and take note of what he sees and\nreason with himself, making a choice of the more excellent details of\nthe character of any object he sees; he should be like unto the mirror,\nwhich takes the colours of the objects it reflects.  And this\nproceeding will seem to him to be a second nature.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Painter in his Studio]\n\n46.\n\nIn order that the favourable disposition of the mind may not be injured\nby that of the body, the painter or the draughtsman should be solitary,\nand especially when he is occupied with those speculations and thoughts\nwhich continually rise up before the eye, and afford materials to be\ntreasured by the memory.\n\nIf thou art alone, thou wilt belong to thyself only: if thou hast but\none companion, thou wilt only half belong to thyself, and ever less in\nproportion to the indiscretion of his conduct; and if thou hast many\ncompanions, thou wilt encounter {102} the same disadvantage.  And if\nthou shouldst say: \"I will follow my own inclination, I will withdraw\ninto seclusion in order the better to study the forms of natural\nobjects\"--I say thou wilt with difficulty be able to do this, because\nthou wilt not be able to refrain from constantly listening to their\nchatter; and, not being able to serve two masters, thou wilt play the\npart of a companion ill, and still worse will be the evil effect on thy\nstudies in art.  And if thou sayest: \"I will withdraw myself, so that\ntheir words cannot reach and disturb me\"--I, with regard to this, say\nthou wilt be regarded as a madman; but seest thou not that by so doing\nthou wilt be alone also?\n\n\n[Sidenote: Advice to the Painter]\n\n47.\n\nThe mind of the painter must be like unto a mirror, which ever takes\nthe colour of the object it reflects, and contains as many images as\nthere are objects before it.  Therefore realize, O painter, that thou\ncanst not succeed unless thou art the universal master of imitating by\nthy art every variety of nature's forms, and this thou canst not do\nsave by perceiving them and retaining them in thy mind; wherefore when\nthou walkest in the country let thy mind play on various objects,\nobserve now this thing and now that thing, making a store of various\nobjects selected and chosen from those of lesser value.  And thou shalt\nnot do as some painters, who, when weary of plying {103} their fancy,\ndismiss their work from their mind and take exercise in walking for\nrelaxation, but retain fatigue in the mind, which, though they see\nvarious objects, does not apprehend them, but often when they meet\nfriends and relations and are saluted by them, they are no more\nconscious of them than if they had met empty air.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Precepts]\n\n48.\n\nAnd thou, O painter, seek to bring about that thy works may attract\nthose who gaze upon them and arrest them with great admiration and\ndelight; and so that they may not attract and forthwith repel them, as\nthe air does to him who in the night season leaps naked from his bed to\ngaze upon the cloudy and serene sky and forthwith is driven back by the\ncold, and returns to the bed whence he rose.  But let thy works be like\nthe air which draws men from their beds in the hot season, and retains\nthem to taste with delight the cool of the summer; and he who will do\nwell by his art will not strive to be more skilful than learned, nor\nlet greed get the better of glory.  Seest thou not among human beauties\nthat it is the beautiful faces which stop the passers-by, and not the\nrichness of their ornaments?  And this I say to thee who adornest thy\nfigures with gold and other rich ornaments: Seest thou not splendid,\nyouthful beauties, who diminish their excellence by the excess and\nelaboration of their {104} ornaments?  Hast thou not seen women of the\nmountains dressed in rough and poor clothes richer in beauty than those\nwho are adorned?  Make no use of the affected arrangements and\nheaddresses such as those adopted by loutish maids, who, by placing one\nlock of hair more on one side than the other, credit themselves with\nhaving committed a great enormity, and think that the bystanders will\nforget their own thoughts to talk of them alone, and to blame them.\nFor such persons have always the looking-glass and the comb, and the\nwind, which ruffles elaborate headdresses, is their worst enemy.  In\nthy heads let the hair sport with the wind thou depictest around\nyouthful countenances, and adorn them gracefully with various turns,\nand do not as those who plaster their faces with gum and make the faces\nseem as if they were of glass.  This is a human folly which is always\non the increase, and the mariners do not satisfy it who bring arabic\ngums from the East, so as to prevent the smoothness of the hair from\nbeing ruffled by the wind,--but they pursue their investigations still\nfurther in this direction.\n\n\n49.\n\nI cannot but mention among these precepts a new means of study, which,\nalthough it may seem trivial and almost ridiculous, is nevertheless\nextremely useful in arousing the mind to {105} various inventions.  It\nis as follows: when you look at walls mottled with various stains or\nstones made of diverse substances, if you have to invent some scene,\nyou may discover on them the likeness of various countries, adorned\nwith mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, great valleys and hills\nin diverse arrangement; again, you may be able to see battles and\nfigures in action and strange effects of physiognomy and costumes, and\ninfinite objects which you could reduce to complete and harmonious\nforms.  And the effect produced by these mottled walls is like that of\nthe sound of bells, in the vibrating of which you may recognize any\nname or word you choose to imagine.  I have seen blots in the clouds\nand in mottled walls which have stimulated me to the invention of\nvarious objects, and although the blots themselves were altogether\ndevoid of perfection in any one of their parts, they lacked not\nperfection in their movement and circumstance.\n\n\n50.\n\nObtain knowledge first, and then proceed to practice, which is born of\nknowledge.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Theory and Practice]\n\n51.\n\nKnowledge is the captain, and practice the soldiers.\n\n\n52.\n\nThe painter who draws by practice and by the {106} eye, without the\nguide of reason, is like the mirror, which reflects all the objects\nwhich are placed before it and knows not that they exist.\n\n\n53.\n\nMany will consider they can reasonably blame me by alleging that my\nproofs are contrary to the authority of many men held in great esteem\nby their inexperienced judgements: overlooking the fact that my works\nare solely and simply the offspring of experience, which is the\nveritable master.\n\n\n54.\n\nThey who are enamoured of practice without knowledge are like the\nmariner who puts to sea in a vessel without rudder or compass, and who\nnavigates without a course.  Practice should always be based on sound\ntheory; perspective is the guide and the portal of theory, and without\nit nothing can be well done in the art of painting.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Course of Study]\n\n55.\n\nThe youth should first learn perspective, and then the measurements of\nevery object; he should then copy from some good master to accustom\nhimself to well-drawn forms, then from nature to acquire confirmation\nof the theories he has learnt; then he should study for a time the\nworks of various masters, and finally attain the {107} habit of putting\ninto practice and producing his art.\n\n\n56.\n\nMathematics, such as appertain to painting, are necessary to the\npainter, also the absence of companions who are alien to his studies:\nhis brain must be versatile and susceptible to the variety of objects\nwhich it encounters, and free from distracting cares.  And if in the\ncontemplation and definition of one subject a second subject\nintervenes,--as happens when the mind is filled with an object,--in\nsuch cases he must decide which of the two objects is the more\ndifficult of definition, and pursue that one until he arrives at\nperfect clearness of definition, and then turn to the definition of the\nother.  And above all things his mind should be like the surface of the\nmirror, which shows as many colours as there are objects it reflects;\nand his companions should study in the same manner, and if such cannot\nbe found he should meditate in solitude with himself, and he will not\nfind more profitable company.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Perspective & Mathematics]\n\n57.\n\nIn the study of natural causes and reasons light affords the greatest\npleasure to the student; among the great facts of mathematics the\ncertainty of demonstration most signally elevates the mind of the\nstudent.  Perspective must therefore be {108} placed at the head of all\nhuman study and discipline, in the field of which the radiant line is\nrendered complex by the methods of demonstration; in it resides the\nglory of physics as well as of mathematics, and it is adorned with\nflowers of both these sciences.\n\nThe laws of those sciences which are capable of extensive analysis I\nwill confine in brief conclusions, and according to the nature of the\nmaterial I will interweave mathematical demonstrations, at times\ndeducing results from causes, and at times tracing causes by results.\nI will add to my conclusions some which are not contained in these, but\nwhich can be deduced from them, if the Lord, the Supreme Light,\nilluminates me, so that I may treat of light.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of the Method of Learning]\n\n58.\n\nWhen you will have thoroughly mastered perspective and have learnt by\nheart the parts and forms of objects, strive when you go about to\nobserve.  Note and consider the circumstances and the actions or men,\nas they talk, dispute, laugh or fight together, and not only the\nbehaviour of the men themselves, but that of the bystanders who\nseparate them or look on at these things; and make a note of them, in\nthis way, with slight marks in your little note-book.  And you should\nalways carry this note-book with you, and it should be of coloured\npaper, so that what you {109} write may not be rubbed out; but (when it\nis used up) change the old for a new one, since these things should not\nbe rubbed out, but preserved with great care, because such is the\ninfinity of the forms and circumstances of objects, that the memory is\nincapable of retaining them; wherefore keep these sketches as your\nguides and masters.\n\n\n59.\n\nThese rules are only to be used in correcting the figures, since every\nman makes some mistakes in his first composition, and he who is not\naware of them cannot correct them; but thou being conscious of thine\nerrors wilt correct thy work and amend errors where thou findest them,\nand take care not to fall into them again.  But if thou attemptest to\napply these rules in composition thou wilt never finish anything, and\nconfusion will enter into thy work.  Through these rules thou shalt\nacquire a free and sound judgement, since sound judgement and thorough\nunderstanding proceed from reason arising from sound rules, and sound\nrules are the offspring of sound experience, the common mother of all\nthe sciences and arts.  Hence if thou bearest in mind the precepts of\nmy rules thou shalt be able, merely by thy corrected judgement, to\njudge and recognize any lack of proportion in a work, in perspective,\nin figures or anything else.\n\n{110}\n\n[Sidenote: Again of the Method of Learning]\n\n60.\n\nI say that the first thing which should be learnt is the mechanism of\nthe limbs, and when this knowledge has been acquired their actions\nshould come next, according to the external circumstances of man, and\nthirdly the composition of subjects, which should be taken from natural\nactions, made fortuitously according to circumstances; and pay\nattention to them in the streets and public places and fields, and note\nthem with a brief indication of outlines; that is to say, for a head\nmake an O, and for an arm a straight or a bent line, and the same for\nthe legs and body; and when thou returnest home work out these notes in\na complete form.  The adversary says that to acquire practice and to do\na great deal of work, it is better that the first course of study\nshould be employed in copying diverse compositions done on paper or on\nwalls by various masters, and that thus rapidity of practice and a good\nmethod is acquired; to which I reply that this method will be good if\nit is based on works which are well composed by competent masters; and\nsince such masters are so rare that but few of them are to be found, it\nis safer to go to nature, than to what to its deterioration is imitated\nfrom nature, and to fall into bad habits, since he who can go to the\nfountain does not go to the water-vessel.\n\n{111}\n\n[Sidenote: Counsel to the Painter]\n\n61.\n\nEvery bough and every fruit is born above the insertion of its leaf,\nwhich serves it as a mother, giving it water from the rain and moisture\nfrom the dew which falls on it from above in the night, and often it\nshields them from the heat of the sun's rays.  Therefore, O painter,\nwho lackest such rules, be desirous, in order to escape the blame of\nthose who know, of copying every one of thy objects from nature, and\ndespise not study after the manner of those who work for gain.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On Anatomy]\n\n62.\n\nAnd you who say that it would be better to see practical anatomy than\ndrawings of it, would be right if it were possible to see all the\nthings which are shown in such drawings in a single drawing, in which\nyou, with all your skill, will not see nor obtain knowledge of more\nthan a few veins; and to obtain true and complete knowledge of these\nveins I have destroyed more than ten human bodies, destroying all the\nother limbs, and removing, down to its minutest particles, the whole of\nthe flesh which surrounds these veins, without letting them bleed save\nfor the insensible bleeding of the capillary veins.  And as one body\ndid not suffice for so long a time I had to proceed with several bodies\nby degrees until I finished by acquiring perfect knowledge, and this I\n{112} repeated twice to see the differences.  And if you have a love\nfor such things you may be prevented by disgust, and if this does not\nprevent you, you may be prevented by fear of living at night in company\nwith such corpses, which are cut up and flayed and fearful to see; and\nif this does not prevent, you may not have a sufficient mastery of\ndrawing for such a demonstration, and if you have the necessary mastery\nof drawing, it may not be combined with the knowledge of perspective;\nand if it were you might lack the power of geometrical demonstration,\nand the calculation of forces, and of the strength of the muscles, and\nperhaps you will lack patience and consequently diligence.  As to\nwhether these qualities are to be found in me or not the hundred and\ntwenty books I have composed will pronounce the verdict Yes or No.\nNeither avarice nor negligence, but time has hindered me in these.\nFarewell.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On Study]\n\n63.\n\nI have myself proved that it is useful when you are in bed in the dark\nto work with the imagination, summing up the external outlines of the\nforms previously studied or other noteworthy things apprehended by\nsubtle speculation; and this is a laudable practice and useful in\nimpressing objects on the memory.\n\n\n{113}\n\n[Sidenote: On judging Pictures]\n\n64.\n\nWe are well aware that faults are more easily recognized in the works\nof others than in our own, and often in blaming the small faults of\nothers thou wilt ignore great ones in thyself.  And to avoid such\nignorance see that in the first place thy perspective be sound, then\nacquire a complete knowledge of the measurements of man and other\nanimals, and of good architecture; that is to say, as far as the forms\nof buildings and other objects which are on the earth are concerned,\nand these are infinite in number.  The more of them that thou knowest,\nthe more praiseworthy will be thy work; and in cases where thou hast no\nexperience do not refuse to draw them from nature.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Advice to the Painter]\n\n65.\n\nCertainly while a man is painting he should not be loth to hear every\nopinion: since we know well that a man, although he be not a painter,\nis cognizant of the forms of another man, and will be able to judge\nthem, whether he is hump-backed or has a shoulder too high or too low,\nor whether he has a large mouth or nose, or other defects.  And if we\nknow that men are capable of giving a correct judgement on the works of\nnature, much more ought we to acknowledge their competence to judge our\nfaults, since we know how greatly a man may be deceived in {114} his\nown work; and if thou art not conscious of this in thyself, study it in\nothers and thou wilt profit by their faults.  Therefore be desirous to\nbear with patience the opinions of others, and consider and reflect\nwell whether he who blames has good ground or not to blame thee, and if\nthou thinkest that he has, amend thy work; and if not, act as though\nthou hadst not heard him, and if he should be a man thou esteemest show\nhim by reasoning where his mistake lies.\n\n\n66.\n\nThere is a certain generation of painters who, owing to the scantiness\nof their studies, must needs live up to the beauty of gold and azure,\nand with supreme folly declare that they will not give good work for\npoor payment, and that they could do as well as others if they were\nwell paid.  Now consider, foolish people!  Cannot such men reserve some\ngood work and say, \"This is costly; this is moderate, and this is cheap\nwork,\" and show that they have work at every price?\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Painter and the Mirror]\n\n67.\n\nWhen thou wishest to see whether thy picture corresponds entirely with\nthe objects thou hast drawn from nature, take a mirror and let the\nliving reality be reflected in it, and compare the reflection with thy\npicture, and consider well {115} whether the subject of the two images\nare in harmony one with another.\n\nAnd above all thou shouldst take the mirror for thy master,--a flat\nmirror, since on its surface the objects in many respects have the same\nappearance as in painting.  For thou seest that a painting done on a\nflat surface reveals objects which appear to be in relief, and the\nmirror consisting of a flat surface produces the same effect; the\npainting consists of one plane surface and the mirror likewise; the\npicture is impalpable, in so far as that which appears to be round and\nprominent cannot be grasped by the hands, and it is the same with the\nmirror; the mirror and the painting reveal the semblance of objects\nsurrounded by light and shade; each of them appears to be at a distance\nfrom its surface.\n\nAnd if thou dost recognize that the mirror by means of outlines, lights\nand shadows gives relief to objects, and since thou hast in thy colours\nlights and shadows stronger than those of the mirror, there is no doubt\nthat if thou composest thy picture well, it will also have the\nappearance of nature when it is reflected in a large mirror.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Painter's Mind]\n\n68.\n\nThe mind of the painter should continually transmute the figure of the\nnotable objects which come before him into so many discourses; and\nimprint them in his memory and classify them {116} and deduce rules\nfrom them, taking the place, the circumstances, the light and the shade\ninto consideration.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Variety of Nature]\n\n69.\n\nI say that the universal proportions must be observed in the height of\nfigures and not in their size, because in the admirable and marvellous\nthings which appear in the works of nature there is no work of\nwhatsoever character in which one detail is exactly similar to another;\ntherefore, O thou imitator of nature, pay heed to the variety of\nfeatures.\n\n\n70.\n\nRadically wrong is the procedure of some masters who are in the habit\nof repeating the same themes in the same episodes, and whose types of\nbeauty are likewise the same, for in nature they are never repeated, so\nthat if all the beauties of equal excellence were to come to life again\nthey would compose a larger population than that now existing in our\ncentury, and since in the present century no one person is precisely\nsimilar to another, so would it be among the beauties mentioned above.\n\n\n71.\n\nYou must depict your figures with gestures which will show what the\nfigure has in his mind, otherwise your art will not be praiseworthy.\n\n\n{117}\n\n[Sidenote: Mind and Expression]\n\n72.\n\nNo figure will be admirable if the gesture which expresses the passion\nof the soul is not visible in it.  The most admirable figure is that\nwhich best expresses the passion of its mind.\n\n\n73.\n\nThe good painter has two principal things to depict: man and the\npurpose of his mind.  The first is easy, the second is difficult, since\nhe must do it by the gestures and movements of the limbs, and this is\nto be learnt from the dumb, who more than all other men excel in it.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Dumb Man guides the Painter]\n\n74.\n\nThe figures of men have gestures which correspond to what they are\ndoing, so that in seeing them you understand what they are thinking of\nand saying; and these will be learned well by him who will copy the\ngestures of the dumb, for they speak by the gestures of their hands,\ntheir eyes, their brows and their whole person, when they wish to\nexpress the purpose of their mind.  And do not mock me because I\nsuggest a dumb teacher for the teaching of an art of which he is\nhimself ignorant, because he will teach you better by his gestures than\nall the others with their words.  And despise not such advice because\nthey are the masters of gesture, and understand at a {118} distance\nwhat a man is talking of if he suits the actions of the hands to the\nwords.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Advice to the Painter]\n\n75.\n\nIt is a great fault in painters to repeat the same movements, the same\nfaces and manners of stuffs in one subject, and to let the greater part\nof his faces resemble their creator; and this has often been a source\nof wonder to me, for I have known some who in all their figures seem to\nhave depicted themselves.  And in the figures the actions and ways of\nthe painter were visible.  And if they are prompt in action and in\ntheir ways the figures are likewise prompt; and if the painter is\npious, the figures with their twisted necks appear pious likewise, and\nif the painter is lazy the figures seem like laziness personified, and\nif the painter is deformed so are his figures, and if he is mad it is\namply visible in figures of his subjects, which are devoid of intention\nand appear to be heedless of their action, some looking in one\ndirection, some in another, as though they were dreaming; and therefore\nevery manifestation in the picture corresponds to a peculiarity in the\npainter.  And as I have often thought over the cause of this fault, it\nseems to me that we must conclude that the spirit which directs and\ngoverns everybody is that which forms our intellect, or rather, it is\nour intellect itself.  It has {119} devised the whole figure of man\naccording as it has thought fit that it should be, either with long or\na short and turned-up nose, and thus it has determined its height and\nfigure; and so powerful is the intellect that it gives motion to the\narms of the painter and causes him to reproduce himself, since it\nappears to the spirit that this is the true method of portraying man,\nand he that does otherwise is in error.  And should this spirit find\nany one who resembles its body, which it has formed, it loves it and\nbecomes enamoured with it, and for this reason many men fall in love\nand marry wives which resemble themselves, and often the children which\nare born of the issue resemble their parents.\n\n\n76.\n\nThe painter should portray his figure according to the measurements of\na natural body, which shall be of universal proper proportions; in\naddition to this he should measure himself and see in which part his\nown figure varies greatly or less from the aforesaid pattern of\nexcellence, and when he has ascertained this he should try his utmost\nto avoid the defects which exist in his own person in the figures he\nportrays.\n\nAnd know that thou must contend with all thy might against this fault\ninasmuch as it is a defect which originated with the intellect; because\nthe {120} spirit which governs thy body is that which is thine own\nintellect, and it is inclined to take pleasure in works similar to that\nwhich it accomplished in forming its body.  And this is the reason that\nthere is no woman, however ugly, who does not find a lover, unless she\nbe monstrous.  So remember to ascertain the defects of thy person and\nto avoid reproducing them in the figures thou dost compose.\n\n\n77.\n\nThat painter who has coarse hands will portray the like in his works,\nand the same thing will occur in every limb unless he avoids this\npitfall by long study.  Therefore, O painter, look well on that part of\nthy person which is most ugly, and by thy study make ample reparation\nfor it, because if thou art bestial, bestial and without intellect will\nbe thy figures, and similarly both the good and ill which thou hast in\nthee will be partially visible in thy compositions.\n\n\n78.\n\nMen and words are already made, and thou, painter, who knowest not how\nto make thy figures move, art like the orator who knows not how to\nemploy his words.\n\n\n79.\n\nThe movements of men are as varied as the {121} circumstances which\npass through their minds; and men will be more or less actuated by\nevery circumstance in itself according as they are more or less\npowerful and according to age; because in the same circumstance an old\nman or a youth will make a different movement.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Power of Expression in Painting]\n\n80.\n\nThe imagination does not perceive such excellent things as the eye,\nbecause the eye receives the images or semblances from objects, and\ntransmits them to the perception, and from thence to the brain; and\nthere they are comprehended.  But the imagination does not issue forth\nfrom the brain, with the exception of that part of it which is\ntransmitted to the memory, and in the brain it remains and dies, if the\nthing imagined is not of high quality.  And in this case poetry is\nformed in the mind or in the imagination of the poet, who depicts the\nsame objects as the painter, and by reason of the work of his fancy he\nwishes to rival the painter, but in reality he is greatly inferior to\nhim, as we have shown above.  Therefore with regard to the work of\nfancy we will say that there is the same proportion between the art of\npainting and that of poetry as exists between the body and the shadow\nproceeding from it, and the proportion is still greater, inasmuch as\nthe shadow of such a body at least penetrates to {122} the brain\nthrough the eye, but the imaginative embodiment of such a body does not\nenter into the eye, but is born in the dark brain.  Ah!  What\ndifference there is between imagining such a light in the darkness of\nthe brain and seeing it in concrete shape set free from all darkness.\n\nIf thou, O poet, dost represent the battle and its bloodshed enveloped\nby the obscure and dark air, amid the smoke of the terrifying and\ndeadly engines, together with the thick dust which darkens the air, and\nthe flight in terror of wretches panic-stricken by horrible death; in\nthis case the painter will surpass thee, because thy pen will be used\nup before thou hast scarcely begun to describe what the art of the\npainter represents for thee immediately.  And thy tongue shall be\nparched with thirst and thy body worn out with weariness and hunger\nbefore thou canst show what the painter will reveal in an instant of\ntime.  And in this painting there lacks nothing save the soul of the\nthings depicted, and every body is represented in its entirety as far\nas it is visible in one aspect; and it would be a long and most tedious\nmatter for poetry to enumerate all the movements of each soldier in\nsuch a war, and the parts of their limbs and their ornaments which the\nfinished picture places before you with great accuracy and brevity; and\nto such a representation nothing is wanting save the noise of the\nengines, and the cries of the terrifying victors, {123} and the screams\nand lamentations of those awe-stricken; neither again can the poet\nconvey these things to the hearing.\n\nWe will say, therefore, that poetry is an art which is supremely potent\nfor the blind, and the painting has the same result on the deaf.\nPainting, therefore, excels poetry in proportion as the sense to which\nit ministers is the nobler.  The only true function of the poet is to\nrepresent the words of people who talk among each other, and these\nalone he represents to the hearing as if they were natural, because\nthey are natural in themselves and created by the human voice; and in\nall other respects he is surpassed by the painter.  Still more,\nincomparably greater is the width of range of painting than that of\nspeech, because the painter can accomplish an infinity of things which\nspeech will not be able to name for want of the appropriate terms.  And\nseest thou not that if the painter wishes to depict animals and devils\nin Hell with what richness of invention he proceeds?\n\nAnd I once chanced to paint a picture which represented a divine\nsubject, and it was bought by the lover of her whom it represented, and\nhe wished to strip it of its divine character so as to be able to kiss\nit without offence.  But finally his conscience overcame his desire and\nhis lust and he was compelled to remove the picture from his house.\nNow go thou, poet, and describe a beautiful woman without giving the\nsemblance of {124} the living thing, and with it arouse such desire in\nmen!  If thou sayest: I will describe then Hell and Paradise and other\ndelights and terrors,--the painter will surpass thee, because he will\nset before thee things which in silence will [make thee] give utterance\nto such delight, and so terrify thee as to cause thee to wish to take\nflight.  Painting stirs the senses more readily than poetry.  And if\nthou sayest that by speech thou canst convulse a crowd with laughter or\ntears, I rejoin that it is not thou who stirrest the crowd, it is the\npathos of the orator, and his mirth.  A painter once painted a picture\nwhich caused everybody who saw it to yawn, and this happened every time\nthe eye fell on the picture, which represented a person yawning.\nOthers have painted libidinous acts of such sensuality that they have\nincited those who gazed on them to similar acts, and poetry could not\ndo this.\n\nAnd if you write the description of certain deities the description\nwill not be held in the same veneration as the picture of the Deity,\nbecause prayers and votive offerings will always be made to the\npicture, and many peoples from diverse countries and from across the\nEastern seas will flock to it.  And they will invoke the picture, and\nnot the writing, for succour.  Who is he who would not lose hearing,\nsmell and touch rather than sight?  Because he who loses his sight is\nlike the man who is driven from the world, because {125} he sees\nneither it nor anything else any longer.  And this life becomes the\nsister of Death.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Landscapes]\n\n81.\n\nI have been to see a variety of cloud effects, and lately over Milan\ntowards Lake Maggiore I saw a cloud in the form of a huge mountain full\nof fiery scales, because the rays of the sun, which was already\nreddening and close to the horizon, tinged the cloud with its own\ncolour.  And this cloud attracted to it all the lesser clouds which\nwere around it; and the great cloud did not move from its place, but on\nthe contrary retained on its summit the light of the sun till an hour\nand a half after nightfall, such was its immense size; and about two\nhours after nightfall a great, an incredibly tremendous wind arose.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Vegetation of a Hill]\n\n82.\n\nThe grasses and plants will be paler in proportion as the soil which\nnourishes them is leaner and devoid of moisture; the earth is leaner\nand less rich in moisture on the rocks of which the mountains are\nformed.  And the trees will be smaller and thinner in proportion as\nthey are nearer to the summit of the mountain; and the soil is leaner\nin proportion as it is nearer to the said summit, and it is richer in\nproportion as it is nearer the hollow valleys.  Therefore, O painter,\n{126} thou shalt represent rocks on the summits of the mountains--for\nthey are composed of rocks--for the greater part devoid of soil, and\nthe plants which grow there are small and lean and for the greater part\nwithered and dry from lack of moisture, and the sandy and lean earth is\nseen through the faded plants; and the small plants are stunted and\naged, exiguous in size, with short and thick boughs and few leaves;\nthey cover for the greater part the rust-coloured and dry roots, and\nare interwoven in the strata and the fissures of the rugged rocks, and\nissue from trunks maimed by men or by the winds; and in many places you\nsee the rocks surmounting the summits of the high mountains, covered\nwith a thin and faded moss; and in some places their true colour is\nlaid bare and made visible owing to the percussion of the lightnings of\nHeaven, whose course is often obstructed to the damage of these rocks.\n\nAnd in proportion as you descend towards the base of the mountains the\nplants are more vigorous and their boughs and foliage are denser; and\ntheir vegetation varied according to the various species of the plants\nof which such woods are composed, and their boughs are of diverse\narrangement and diverse amplitude of foliage, various in shape and\nsize; and some have straight boughs like the cypress, and some have\nwidely scattered and spreading boughs like the oak and the chestnut\ntree, and the like; some have very {127} small leaves, others have a\nspare foliage like the juniper and the plane tree, and others; some\nplants born at the same time are divided by wide spaces, and others are\nunited with no division of space between them.\n\n\n[Sidenote: How to represent Night]\n\n83.\n\nThat which is entirely devoid of light is all darkness; as the night is\nlike this and you wish to represent a night subject, represent a great\nfire, so that the object which is nearest to the fire may be tinged\nwith its colour, since the object which is nearest the fire will\nparticipate most in its nature.  And as you will make the fire red, all\nthe objects which it illumines must be red also, and those which are\nfarther off from the fire will be dyed to a greater extent by the dark\ncolour of night.  The figures which are between you and the fire appear\ndark from the obscurity of the night, not from the glow of the\nfirelight, and those which are at the side are half dark and half\nruddy, and those which are visible beyond the edge of the flames will\nbe altogether lighted up by the red glow against a black background.\nAs to their action, make those which are near shield themselves with\ntheir hands and cloaks against the intense heat with averted faces as\nthough about to flee; with regard to those who are farther off,\nrepresent them chiefly in the act of raising their hands to their eyes,\ndazzled by the intense glare.\n\n{128}\n\n[Sidenote: How to represent Storm]\n\n84.\n\nIf you wish to represent well a storm, consider and weigh its effects\nwhen the wind, blowing across the surface of the sea and the earth,\nremoves and carries with it those things which are not stable in the\nuniversal drift.  And in order to represent this storm adequately, you\nmust in the first place represent tattered and rent clouds rushing with\nthe rushing wind, accompanied by sandy dust caught up from the\nseashores, and boughs and leaves torn up by the force and fury of the\nwind, and dispersed in the air with many other light objects.  The\ntrees and the plants bent towards the earth almost seem as though they\nwished to follow the rushing wind, with their boughs wrenched from\ntheir natural direction and their foliage all disordered and distorted.\nOf the men who are to be seen, some are fallen and entangled in their\nclothes and almost unrecognizable on account of the dust, and those who\nremain standing may be behind some tree, clutching hold of it so that\nthe wind may not tear them away; others, with their hands over their\neyes on account of the dust, stoop towards the ground, with their\nclothes and hair streaming to the wind.  The sea should be rough and\ntempestuous, and full of swirling eddies and foam among the high waves,\nand the wind hurls the spray through the tumultuous air like a thick\nand swathing mist.  {129} As regards the ships that are there, you will\ndepict some with torn sails and tattered shreds fluttering through the\nair with shattered rigging; some of the masts will be split and fallen,\nand the ship lying down and wrecked in the raging waves; some men will\nbe shrieking and clinging to the remnants of the vessel.  You will make\nthe clouds driven by the fury of the winds and hurled against the high\nsummits of the mountains, and eddying and torn like waves beaten\nagainst rocks; the air shall be terrible owing to deep darkness caused\nby the dust and the mist and the dense clouds.\n\n\n[Sidenote: How to describe a Battle]\n\n85.\n\nIn the first place you must represent the smoke of the artillery\nmingled with the air, and the dust, and tossed up by the stampede of\nthe horses and the combatants.  And you must treat this confusion in\nthis way: dust being an earthly thing has weight, and although owing to\nits fineness it is easily lifted up and mingled with the air, it\nnevertheless falls readily to the earth again, and it is its finest\npart which rises highest, therefore that part will be the least visible\nand will seem to be almost of the same colour as the air; the higher\nthe smoke, which is mingled with the dusty air, rises towards a certain\nheight, the more it will seem like a dark cloud, and at the summit the\nsmoke will be more visible than the dust.  {130} The smoke will assume\na bluish colour, and the dust will retain its colour: this mixture of\nair, smoke and dust will seem much brighter on the side whence the\nlight proceeds than on the opposite side; the more densely the\ncombatants are enveloped in this confusion the less distinctly will\ntheir lights and shadows be visible.  You must cast a glowing light on\nthe countenances and the figures, the atmosphere, the musketeers and\nthose who are near them, and this light diminishes in proportion as the\ndistance between it and its cause increases; and the figures which are\nbetween you and the light will appear dark against a bright background,\nand their legs will be less visible in proportion as they are nearer to\nthe earth, because the dust there is coarsest and thickest.  And if you\ndepict horses galloping beyond the crowd, make little clouds of dust,\ndistant one from the other in proportion to the strides made by the\nhorses, and the cloud which is farthest away from the horse will be the\nleast visible; it must be high, scattered and thin, and the nearer\nclouds will be more conspicuous, smaller and denser.  The air must be\nfull of arrows falling in every direction: some flying upwards, some\nfalling, some on the level plane; and smoke should trail after the\nflight of the cannon-balls.  The foremost figures should have their\nhair and eyebrows clotted with dust; dust must be on every flat portion\nthey offer capable of retaining it.  {131} The conquerors you should\nmake as they charge, with their hair and the other light things\nappertaining to them streaming to the wind, their brows contracted and\nthe limbs thrust forward inversely, that is, if the right foot is\nthrust forward the left arm must be thrust forward also.  And if you\nportray a fallen man you must show where he has slipped and been\ndragged through the blood-stained mud, and around in the wet earth you\nmust show the imprint of the feet of men and the hoofs of horses that\nhave passed there.  You will also represent a horse dragging its dead\nmaster, and in the wake of the body its track, as it has been dragged\nalong through the dust and the mud; you must make the vanquished and\nbeaten pale, their brows knit and the skin surmounting the brow\nfurrowed with lines of pain.  On the sides of the nose there must be\nwrinkles forming an arch from the nostrils to the eyes and terminating\nat the commencement of the latter; the nostrils should be drawn up,\nwhence the wrinkles mentioned above; the arched lips show the upper row\nof teeth.  The teeth should be apart, as with crying and lamentation.\nOne hand shields the frightened eyes, the palm being held towards the\nenemy; the other [hand] rests on the ground to sustain the raised body.\nYou shall portray others shouting in flight with their mouths wide\nopen; you must depict many kinds of weapons lying at the feet of the\n{132} combatants, such as broken shields, lances, shattered swords and\nother similar objects; you must portray dead men, some half covered,\nsome entirely covered, by the dust which is mingled with the spilt\nblood and converted into red mud, and the blood is seen by its colour\nflowing in a sinuous stream from the body to the dust; others in their\ndeath-agony are grinding their teeth, rolling their eyes and clenching\ntheir fists against their bodies and their distorted legs.  Some might\nbe represented disarmed and thrown by the enemy, turning upon him with\nteeth and nails to wreak cruel and sharp revenge; a riderless horse\nmight be represented charging with his mane streaming to the wind\namidst the enemy, and inflicting great damage with his hoofs.  Some\nmaimed man might be seen fallen to the earth and protecting himself\nwith his shield, while the enemy, bending over him, tries to kill him.\nYou might show a number of men fallen together over a dead horse.  You\nwould see some of the conquerors leaving the battle and issuing from\nthe crowd, clearing with their hands their eyes and cheeks of the mud\nmade by the watering of their dust-bespattered eyes.  You would see the\nreserves standing full of hope and caution, with brows alert, shading\nthem with their hands and gazing through the thick and confused\ndarkness, attentive to the orders of their captain; and likewise the\ncaptain, with his staff raised, is rushing towards these {133} reserves\nand points out to them the spot where they are needed; and you may add\na river with horses charging into it and stirring up the water all\nround them into seething waves of mixed foam and water, which is\nspurted into the air and among the legs and bodies of the horses.  And\nthere must not be a level place that is not trampled with gory\nfootsteps.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Envy]\n\n86.\n\nEnvy offends with false infamy, that is to say, by detraction which\nfrightens virtue.  Envy must be represented with the hands raised to\nheaven in contempt, because if she could she would use her power\nagainst God.  Make her face covered with a goodly mark; show her as\nwounded in the eye by a palm-branch, and wounded in the ear by laurel\nand myrtle, to signify that victory and truth offend her.  Draw many\nthunderbolts proceeding from her as a symbol of her evil-speaking.\nMake her lean and shrivelled up, because she is continual dissolution.\nMake her heart gnawed by a swelling serpent.  Make her a quiver full of\ntongues for arrows, because she often offends with these.  Make her a\nleopard's skin, because the leopard kills the lion through envy and by\ndeceit.  Place a vase in her hand full of flowers, and let it be full\nalso of scorpions, toads and other reptiles.  Let her ride Death,\nbecause Envy, which is undying, never wearies of sovereignty.  {134}\nMake her a bridle loaded with divers arms, because her weapons are all\ndeadly.  As soon as virtue is born it begets envy which attacks it; and\nsooner will there exist a body without a shadow than virtue\nunaccompanied by envy.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Fame]\n\n87.\n\nFame alone rises towards heaven, because God looks with favour on\nvirtuous things; infamy must be represented upside down, because its\nworks are contrary to God and move towards hell.  Fame should be\ndepicted covered with tongues instead of with feathers and in the form\nof a bird.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Expressive Picture]\n\n88.\n\nA picture or a representation of human figures should be done in such a\nway that the spectator can easily recognize the purpose that is in\ntheir minds by their attitudes.  If you have to represent a man of high\ncharacter, let his gestures be such as harmonize with fair words;\nlikewise, if you have to represent a man of low character, let his\ngestures be fierce, let him thrust his arms towards the listener, and\nlet his head and chest be thrust forward in front of his feet,\nfollowing the hands of the speaker.  It is thus with a dumb man, who\nseeing two speakers, although he is deprived of hearing, nevertheless,\nowing to the attitudes and gestures of the speakers,\n\nunderstands the subject of their argument.  I once saw at Florence a\nman who had become deaf by an accident, who, if you spoke loud to him,\ndid not understand you, but if you spoke gently, without making any\nnoise, he understood you merely by the movement of the lips.  Now you\ncan say, Does not one who talks loudly move his lips like one who talks\nsoftly?  In regard to this I leave experiment to decide: make a man\nspeak gently to you and note his lips.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Ages of Man]\n\n89.\n\nHow the ages of man should be depicted: that is, infancy, childhood,\nyouth, manhood, old age, decrepitude.  How old men should be depicted\nwith lazy and slow movements, their legs bent at the knees when they\nstand still, and their feet placed parallel and apart, their backs\nbent, their heads leaning forward and their arms only slightly extended.\n\nHow women should be represented in modest attitudes, their legs close\ntogether, their arms folded together, their heads bent and inclined to\none side.  How old women should be represented with eager, vehement and\nangry gestures, like the furies of Hades; the movement of the arms and\nthe head should be more violent than that of the legs.  Little children\nwith ready and twisted movements when sitting, and when standing up in\nshy and timid attitudes.\n\n{136}\n\n90.\n\nYou will do as follows if you wish to represent a man talking to a\nnumber of people: you must consider the matter which he has to treat,\nand suit his action to the subject; that is to say, if the matter is\npersuasive, let his action be appropriate to it; if the matter is\nargumentative, let the speaker hold one finger of the left hand with\ntwo fingers of the right hand, closing the two smaller ones, and with\nhis face turned towards the people and his mouth half open, let him\nseem to be about to speak, and if he is sitting let him appear as\nthough about to rise, with his head forward; if you represent him\nstanding up, let him lean slightly forward, with his body and head\ntowards the people.  You must represent the people silent and\nattentive, looking at the orator's face with gestures of admiration,\nand depict some old men with the corners of their mouths pulled down in\nastonishment at what they hear, their cheeks drawn in and full of\nlines, their eyebrows raised, and thus causing a number of wrinkles on\nthe forehead; again, some must be sitting with the fingers of their\nhands clasped and resting on their knee; another, a bowed old man, with\none knee crossed over the other, and on the knee let him hold his hand,\nand let his other elbow rest on his hand, and let the hand support his\nbearded chin.\n\n\n{137}\n\n91.\n\nYou must represent an angry man holding some one by the ear, beating\nhis head against the ground, with one knee on his ribs, his right arm\nraising his fist in the air; his hair must be dishevelled, his eyebrows\nlow and narrow, his teeth clenched and the two corners of his mouth\nset, his neck swelled and [his brow] wrinkled and bent forward as he\nleans over his enemy.\n\n\n92.\n\nThe desperate man must hold a knife and must have torn open his\ngarments, and with one hand he must be tearing open the wound; and you\nmust represent him with extended feet and the legs slightly bent and\nhis body leaning towards the earth, his hair flying and dishevelled.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Notes on the Last Supper]\n\n93.\n\nOne who was in the act of drinking leaves his glass in its place, and\nturns his head towards the speaker.  Another, twisting the fingers of\nhis hands together, turns with stern brows to his companions.  Another,\nwith his hands spread out, shows their palms, and shrugs his shoulders\ntowards his ears; his mouth expresses amazement.  Another speaks in the\near of his neighbour, and he, as he listens to him, turns towards him,\nlending him his ear, while he holds a knife in one hand and {138} a\npiece of bread in the other, half cut through by the knife.  Another,\nin turning with a knife in his hand, has upset a glass on the table.\nAnother lays his hands on the table and looks fixedly.  Another puffs\nout his cheeks, his mouth full.  Another leans forward to see the\nspeaker, shading his eyes with his hand.  Another draws back behind him\nwho is leaning forward and sees the speaker between the wall and the\nman who is leaning forward.\n\n\n\n\n{141}\n\nIII\n\nTHOUGHTS ON SCIENCE\n\n    * *\n     *\n\n[Sidenote: Necessity of Experience in Science]\n\nThere is no human experience that can be termed true science unless it\ncan be mathematically demonstrated.  And if thou sayest that the\nsciences which begin and end in the mind are true, this cannot be\nconceded, but must be denied for many reasons, and firstly because in\nsuch mental discourses experience is eliminated, and without experience\nthere can be no certainty.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Theory and Practice]\n\n2.\n\nYou must first propound the theory and then explain the practice.\n\n\n3.\n\nLet no man who is not a mathematician read the principles of my work.\n\n\n4.\n\nIn the course of scientific exposition the demonstration of a general\nrule derived from a previous conclusion is not to be censured.\n\n\n{142}\n\n[Sidenote: Certainty of Mathematics]\n\n5.\n\nHe who blames the supreme certainty of mathematics feeds on confusion\nand will never be able to silence the contradictions or sophistical\nsciences which lead to an everlasting clamour.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Science]\n\n6.\n\nThere is no certainty [in science] where one of the mathematical\nsciences cannot be applied, or in those [sciences] which are not in\nharmony with mathematics.\n\n\n[Sidenote: From Leonardo's Dictionary]\n\n7.\n\nSyllogism: to speak doubtfully.\n\nSophism: to speak confusedly; falsehood for truth.\n\nTheory: knowledge without practice.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Definition of Science]\n\n8.\n\nScience is that discourse of the mind which derives its origin from\nultimate principles beyond which nothing in nature can be found which\nforms a part of that science: as in the continued quantity, that is to\nsay, the science of geometry, which, starting from the surfaces of\nbodies, has its origin in the line, which is the end of the\nsuperficies; and we are not satisfied by this, because we know that the\nline terminates in the point, and the point is that which is the least\nof things.  Therefore the point is the first principle of geometry, and\nnothing else can exist either {143} in nature or in the human mind from\nwhich the point can issue.  Because if you say that the contact between\na surface and the extreme point of an iron instrument is the creation\nof the point, it is not true; but let us say that this point of contact\nis a superficies which surrounds its centre, and in the centre the\npoint dwells.  And such a point is not a part of the substance of the\nsuperficies, neither it nor all the points of the universe can, even if\ncombined,--it being granted that they could be combined,--compose any\npart of a superficies.  And granted, as you imagined, a whole composed\nof a thousand points, if we divide any part of this quantity of a\nthousand, we can very well say that this part shall equal its whole;\nand this we can prove by zero, or naught, that is, the tenth figure of\narithmetic, which is represented by a cipher as being nothing, and\nplaced after unity it will signify 10, and if two ciphers are placed\nafter unity it will signify 100, and thus the number will go on\nincreasing by ten to infinity whenever a cipher is added, and the\ncipher in itself is worth nothing more than naught, and all the naughts\nin the universe are equal to one naught alone, in regard to their\nsubstance and value.\n\n\n[Sidenote: True Science based on the Testimony of the Senses]\n\n9.\n\nKnowledge which is the issue of experience is termed mechanical; that\nwhich is born and ends {144} in the mind is termed scientific; that\nwhich issues from science and ends in manual work is termed\nsemi-mechanical.  But I consider vain and full of error that science\nwhich is not the offspring of experience, mother of all certitude, and\nwhich does not result in established experience, that is to say, whose\norigin, middle and end do not pass through any of the five senses.  And\nif we doubt of everything we perceive by the senses, should we not\ndoubt much more of what is contrary to the senses, such as the\nexistence of God and of the soul, and similar matters constantly under\ndispute and contention?\n\nAnd it is truly the case that where reason is lacking it is\nsupplemented by noise, which never happens in matters of certainty.  On\naccount of this we will say that where there is noise there is no true\nscience, because truth has one end only, which, when it is made known,\neternally silences controversy, and should controversy come to life\nagain, it is lying and confused knowledge which is reborn, and not\ncertainty.  But true science is that which has penetrated into the\nsenses through experience and silenced the tongue of the disputers, and\nwhich does not feed those who investigate it with dreams, but proceeds\nfrom the basis of primary truths and established principles\nsuccessively and by true sequence to the end; as, for instance, what\ncomes under the heading of elementary mathematics, {145} that is,\nnumeration and measurement, termed arithmetic and geometry, which treat\nwith the highest truth of the discontinued and continued quantity.\nHere there will be no dispute as to whether twice three make more or\nless than six, nor whether two angles of a triangle are less than two\nright angles, but eternal silence shall ignore all controversy, and the\ndevotees of the true science will finish their studies in peace, which\nthe lying mental sciences cannot do.  And if thou sayest that true and\nestablished science of this kind is a species of mechanics, because\nthey can only be completed by the hand, I will say the same of all the\narts, such as that which passes through the hand of the sculptor, which\nis a kind of drawing, a part of painting; and astrology and the other\nsciences pass through manual operation, but they are mental in the\nfirst place, as painting, which first of all exists in the mind of the\ncomposer, and cannot attain to fulfilment without manual labour.  With\nregard to painting, its true and scientific principles must be\nestablished: what constitutes a shaded body, what constitutes a primary\nshade, a derivative shade, what constitutes light: that is, darkness,\nlight, colour, size, shape, position, distance, propinquity, motion,\nrest, which are comprehended by the mind only, and without manual\nlabour.  And this is the science of painting which remains in the mind\nof those who meditate on it, from which {146} issues the work in due\ntime, and is infinitely superior to the aforesaid contemplation or\nscience.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Mechanics]\n\n10.\n\nMechanics are the paradise of scientific mathematics, because with them\nwe arrive at the fruits of mathematics.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Mechanics and Experience]\n\n11.\n\nExperience is indispensable for the making of any instrument.\n\n\n12.\n\nProportion is not only to be found in figures and measurements, but\nalso in sound, weight, time and position, and in whatever power which\nexists.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Reason and Experience]\n\n13.\n\nThe power of the projecting force increases in proportion as the object\nprojected is smaller; the acceleration of the motion increases to\ninfinity proportionately to this diminution.  It would follow that an\natom would be almost as rapid as the imagination or the eye, which in a\nmoment attains to the height of the stars, and consequently its voyage\nwould be infinite, because the thing which can be infinitely diminished\nwould have an infinite velocity and would travel on an infinite course\n(because every continuous quantity is divisible to infinity).  And this\nopinion is {147} condemned by reason and consequently by experience.\n\nThus, you who observe rely not on authors who have merely by their\nimagination wished to be interpreters between nature and man, but on\nthose alone who have applied their minds not to the hints of nature but\nto the results of their experience.  And you must realize the\ndeceptiveness of experiments; because those which often appear to be\none and the same are often different, as is shown here.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Effects correspond to the Force of their Cause]\n\n14.\n\nA spherical body which possesses a dense and resisting superficies will\nmove as much in the rebound resulting from the resistance of a smooth\nand solid plane as it would if you threw it freely through the air, if\nthe force applied be equal in both cases.\n\nOh, admirable justice of thine, thou first mover! thou hast not\npermitted that any tone should fail to produce its necessary effects,\neither as regards order or quantity.  Seeing that a force impels an\nobject which it overcomes a distance of one hundred arms' length, and\nif in obeying this law it meets with resistance, thou hast ordained\nthat the force of the shock will cause afresh a further movement, which\nin its various bounds recuperates the whole sum of the distance it\nshould have travelled.  And if you measure the distance {148}\naccomplished by the aforesaid bounds you will find that they equal the\nlength of distance through which a similar object set in motion by an\nequal force would travel freely through the air.\n\n\n15.\n\nEvery action must be caused by motion.\n\n\n16.\n\nMotion is the cause of all life.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Force]\n\n17.\n\nWhat is force?  Force, I say, is a spiritual virtue, an invisible\npower, which by accidental external violence is caused by motion, and\ncommunicated and infused into bodies which are inert by nature, giving\nthem an active life of marvellous power.\n\n\n18.\n\nWhat is force?  I say that force is a spiritual, incorporate and\ninvisible power, which for a brief duration is produced in bodies that\nby accidental violence are displaced from their natural state of\ninertia.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Origin of Force]\n\n19.\n\nForce arises from dearth or abundance; it is the child of physical\nmotion and the grandchild of spiritual motion, and the mother and\norigin of gravity.  Gravity is confined to the elements of {149} water\nand earth, and this force is infinite, because infinite worlds could be\nmoved by it if instruments could be made by which the force could be\ngenerated.  Force, with physical motion, and gravity, with resistance,\nare the four accidental powers by which all mortal things live and die.\nForce has its origin in spiritual motion, and this motion, flowing\nthrough the limbs of sentient animals, enlarges their muscles, and thus\nenlarged the muscles are shrunk in length and contract the tendons with\nwhich they are connected, and this is the cause of the strength in\nhuman limbs.  The quality and quantity of the strength of a man can\ngenerate a further force, which will increase in proportion to the\nduration of the motions produced by them.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Aspects of Force]\n\n20.\n\nGravity, force and casual motion together with resistance are the four\nexternal powers by which all the visible actions of man live and die.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Inertia]\n\n21.\n\nA motion tends to be continuous; a body set in motion continues to move\nas long as the impression of the motive power lasts in it.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Can Man imitate a Bird's Flight?]\n\n22.\n\nThe bird is an instrument which operates by mathematical laws, and man\ncan reproduce all {150} the movements of this instrument, but cannot\nattain to the intensity of its power; and can only succeed in acquiring\nbalance.  Thus we will say that such an instrument constructed by man\nlacks only the soul of the bird, and the soul of man must counterfeit\nthe soul of the bird.  The spirit in the frame of the bird doubtless\nwould respond to needs of that frame better than would the spirit of\nman, whose frame is different, more especially in the almost insensible\nmotions of balance; and since we see the bird make provision for the\nmany sensible varieties of movement, we can conclude by such experience\nthat man can acquire knowledge of the more markedly sensible of these\nmovements, and that he will be able to make ample provision against the\ndestruction of that instrument of which he has made himself the spirit\nand the guide.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Inertia]\n\n23.\n\nA natural and continuous motion seeks to preserve its course along the\nline of its starting-point, that is to say, let us call starting-point\nwhatever place in which it varies.\n\n\n24.\n\nEverything maintains itself by motion.  And if it were possible to\ndescribe a diameter of air on the sphere of the earth, like to a well,\nwhich would extend from one superficies to the other, {151} and if a\nweighty body were dropped into this well, the body would seek to remain\nstationary at the centre, but so strong would be the impetus that for\nmany years it would prevent it from so doing.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Transmission of Motion]\n\n25.\n\nImpetus is a virtue created by motion and communicated by the motive\nforce to the object moved, and this object acquires motion in\nproportion to the energy of the impetus.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Matter is Inert]\n\n26.\n\nNo lifeless matter moves of itself, but its motion is caused from\nwithout.\n\n\n27.\n\nAll elements displaced from their natural place seek to return to it,\nand more especially fire, water and earth.\n\n\n28.\n\nAll matter universally seeks to maintain itself in its natural state;\nhence, water in motion seeks to maintain its course according to the\nforce by which it is propelled, and if it meets with opposition it\nfinishes the length of the course it began in a circular and reflex\nmotion.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Conception of Energy]\n\n29.\n\nImpetus is the impression of motion conveyed by the motive power to the\nobject moved.  Every {152} impression tends to permanence or seeks to\nattain permanence.  That every impression seeks after permanence is\nproved by the impression made by the sun on the eye which regards it,\nand in the impression of sound made by the hammer which strikes a bell.\nEvery impression seeks after permanence, as is shown in the image of\nimpetus communicated to the object moved.\n\n\n30.\n\nA weight seeks to fall to the centre of the earth by the most direct\nway.\n\n\n[Sidenote: In Praise of the Sun]\n\n31.\n\nIf you look at the stars, warding off the rays (as may be done by\nlooking through a small hole made by the extreme point of a fine needle\nplaced so as almost to touch the eye), they will appear so small as to\nseem as though nothing could be smaller; it is owing to their great\ndistance that they appear so small, for many of them are very many\ntimes larger than the star which is the earth with its water.  Now\nreflect what appearance this our star must have from so great a\ndistance, and then consider how many stars might be placed--both in\nlongitude and latitude--between those stars which are sown in the dark\nspace.  I can never refrain from blaming many of the ancients who said\nthat the size of the sun was no greater than {153} it appears; among\nwhom was Epicurus.  I believe he founded his reasoning on a light\nplaced in our atmosphere equidistant from the centre of the earth,\nwhich, to any one looking at it, never appears to diminish in size from\nwhatever distance it is seen.\n\n\n32.\n\nI shall reserve the reasons of its size and power for later.  But I\ngreatly marvel that Socrates should have depreciated such a body, and\nthat he should have said that it resembled an incandescent stone; and\nhe who opposed him as regards this error acted rightly.  But I wish I\nhad words to blame those who seek to exalt the worship of men more than\nthat of the sun, since in the universe there is no body of greater\nmagnitude and power to be seen than the sun.  And its light illumines\nall the celestial bodies which are distributed throughout the universe;\nand the vital spark descends from it, because the heat which is in\nliving beings comes from the soul, and there is no other centre of heat\nand light in the universe, as will be shown later; and it is certain\nthat those who have elected to worship men as gods--as Jupiter, Saturn,\nMars, &c.--have fallen into a profound error, since even if a man were\nas great as our earth, he would have the appearance of a little star,\nwhich appears like a dot in the universe; and moreover these men are\nmortal, and decay and corrupt in their sepulchres.\n\n\n{154}\n\n33.\n\nEpicurus perhaps saw the shadows of columns on the walls in front of\nthem equal to the diameter of the column which cast the shadow; and\nsince the breadth of the shadows are parallel from beginning to end he\nconsidered that he might infer that the sun also was directly opposite\nto this parallel, and consequently no broader than the column; and he\ndid not perceive that the diminution of the shadow was insensibly small\nowing to the great distance of the sun.  If the sun were smaller than\nthe earth, the stars in a great portion of our hemisphere would be\nwithout light--in contradiction to Epicurus, who says the sun is only\nas large as it appears to be.\n\n\n34.\n\nEpicurus says the sun is the size it seems to be; hence, as it seems to\nbe a foot in breadth, we must consider that to be its size.  It follows\nthat when the moon eclipses the sun, the sun ought not to appear the\nlarger, as it does; hence, the moon being smaller than the sun, the\nmoon must be less than a foot in breadth, and consequently when the\nearth eclipses the moon it must be less than a foot by a finger's\nbreadth; inasmuch as if the sun is a foot in breadth, and the earth\ncasts a conical shadow on the moon, it is inevitable that the luminous\ncause of the conical shadow {155} must be greater than the opaque body\nwhich causes it.\n\n\n35.\n\nMeasure how many times the diameter of the sun will go into its course\nin twenty-four hours.  And thus we can see whether Epicurus was correct\nin saying the sun was only as large as it appeared to be; for as the\napparent diameter of the sun is about a foot, and as the sun would go a\nthousand times into its course in twenty-four hours, it would have\ntravelled a thousand feet, that is, three hundred arms' length, which\nis the sixth of a mile.  Thus the course of the sun during twenty-four\nhours would have been the sixth part of a mile, and this venerable\nsnail, the sun, would have travelled twenty-five arms' length in an\nhour.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Sun's Heat]\n\n36.\n\nThey say that the sun is not hot because it is not the colour of fire\nbut whiter and clearer.  And the answer to this is that when molten\nbronze is hottest it resembles the colour of the sun, and when it is\nless hot it has the colour of fire.\n\n\n37.\n\nIt is proved that the sun is by nature hot and not cold, as has already\nbeen stated.  If rays of fire play on a concave mirror when it is cold,\nthe rays refracted by the mirror will be hotter than {156} the fire.\nThe rays emitted from a sphere of glass filled with cold water, which\nare reflected from a fire, will be warmer than the fire.  It follows\nfrom these two experiments that the heat of the rays reflected by the\nmirror or the sphere of cold water are hot by virtue, and not because\nthe mirror or the sphere is hot; and in this case it occurs that the\nsun, passing through these bodies, heats them by its virtue.  And owing\nto this they have inferred that the sun is not hot,--which by the\naforesaid experiments has been proved to be exceedingly hot, by the\nexperiment of the mirror and the sphere, which are cold in themselves,\nand reflect the hot rays of the fire and render them hotter, because\nthe first cause is hot; and the same thing occurs as regards the sun,\nwhich, being hot in itself, and passing through these cold mirrors,\nrefracts great heat.  It is not the light of the sun which gives\nwarmth, but its natural heat.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Rays of the Sun]\n\n38.\n\nThe rays of the sun pass through the cold region of the air without any\nchange being effected in their nature, they pass through glasses full\nof cold water without suffering change; through whatever transparent\nspot they pass, it is as though they passed through so much air.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Light of the Stars]\n\n39.\n\nSome writers allege that the stars shine of {157} themselves, saying\nthat if Venus and Mercury did not shine of themselves, when their light\ncomes between them and the sun they would darken as much of the sun as\nthey could hide from our eye; this is false, because it is proved that\na dark body placed against a luminous body is enveloped and altogether\ncovered by the lateral rays of the remaining part of that body, and\nthus remains invisible; as may be proved when the sun is seen through\nthe boughs of a leafless tree at a long distance, the boughs do not\nhide any portion of the sun from our eyes.  The same thing occurs with\nthe above-mentioned planets, which, though they have no light in\nthemselves, do not, as has been said, hide any portion of the sun from\nour eyes.\n\nSecond proof.  They say that the stars shine most brightly at night in\nproportion as they are high; and that, if they did not shine of\nthemselves, the shadow cast by the earth between them and the sun would\ndarken them, since they would not see nor be seen by the sun.  But\nthese have not taken into consideration that the conical shadow of the\nmoon does not reach many of the stars, and even for those it does reach\nthe shadow is diminished to such an extent that it covers very little\nof the star, and the remaining part is illumined by the sun.\n\n\n{158}\n\n[Sidenote: On the Nature of the Moon]\n\n40.\n\nThe moon having density and gravity, how does it stand?\n\n\n41.\n\ni.  No very light object is opaque.\n\nii.  Nothing light can remain beneath that which is heavier.\n\niii.  Whether the moon is the centre of its elements or not.  And if it\nhas no fixed position like the earth in the centre of its elements, why\ndoes it not fall to the centre of our elements?  And if the moon is not\nin the centre of its elements and does not fall, it must then be\nlighter than any other element.  And if the moon is lighter than the\nother elements, why is it opaque and not transparent?\n\n\n42.\n\nNo body which has density is lighter than the air.  Having proved that\nthe part of the moon which shines consists of water which mirrors the\nbody of the sun and reflects for us the splendour it receives from the\nsun, and that if there were no waves in these waters, it would appear\nsmall, but almost as bright as the sun--it must now be shown whether\nthe moon is a heavy or a light body; if it is a heavy body--admitting\nthat from the earth upwards with every grade of distance lightness must\nincrease, so that water is lighter than earth, air is lighter than\nwater, and {159} fire lighter than air, and so on in succession--it\nwould seem that if the moon had density, as it has, it must have\ngravity, and if it has gravity the space in which it lies could not\ncontain it, and consequently it would fall towards the centre of the\nuniverse and be joined to the earth, or if not the moon itself, its\nwaters would fall from the moon and strip it and fall towards the\ncentre, leaving the moon bare and lustreless; whence, as this could not\nhappen, as reason would tell us, it is manifest that the moon is\nsurrounded by its elements, that is to say, water, air and fire, and\nthus it sustains itself by itself in that space as our earth is\nsuspended with its elements in this part of space; heavy bodies act in\ntheir elements there just as other heavy bodies act in ours.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On the Harmony of the Spheres]\n\n43.\n\nA sound is produced by the movement of the air in friction against a\ndense body, and should it be produced by two weighty bodies it is owing\nto the atmosphere which surrounds them, and this friction consumes the\nbodies, so that it follows that the spheres in their friction, owing to\nthere being no atmosphere between them, do not generate sound.  And if\nthis friction were a fact, during the many centuries the spheres have\nrevolved they would be consumed by the immense velocity expended daily;\nand even if they produce sound, the sound could not travel, {160}\nbecause the sound caused by percussion under water is scarcely\nnoticeable, and it would be less than noticeable in the case of dense\nbodies.  The friction of polished bodies produces no sound, and similar\nresult would be produced in the contact or friction of the spheres; and\nif the spheres are not polished in their contact and friction, it\nfollows that they are rough.\n\nAgain, their contact is not continuous; this being the case a vacuum is\nproduced, which it has been proved does not exist in nature.  Therefore\nwe conclude that friction would have consumed the ends of each sphere,\nand in proportion as a sphere has a greater velocity in the centre than\nat the poles, it would be consumed to a higher degree at the centre\nthan at the poles; and then the friction would cease, and the sound\nwould cease also, and the spheres would cease to revolve unless one\nsphere revolved eastward and the other northward.\n\n\n44.\n\nWorlds gravitate in the midst of their own elements.  The yellow or\nyolk of an egg remains in the middle of the albumen without moving on\neither side, and is lighter or heavier or equal to this albumen; and if\nit is lighter it ought to rise above all the albumen and stop in\ncontact with the shell of the egg; and if it is heavier it ought {161}\nto sink; and if it is equal to it, it can stand at one of the ends as\nwell as in the centre or below.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Earth appears a Star]\n\n45.\n\nThe object of my book is to prove that the ocean, with the other seas,\nby means of the sun causes our world to shine like the moon and to\nappear as a star to other worlds; and this I will prove.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Earth a Star]\n\n46.\n\nIn your discourse you must prove that the earth is a star like the\nmoon, and thus you will bear witness to the glory of our universe!  And\nthus you must discourse on the size of many stars.\n\n\n47.\n\nHow the earth is a star.  The earth, in the midst of the sphere of\nwater which clothes the greater part of it, taking its light from the\nsun and shining in the universe like the other stars, shows itself to\nbe a star as well.\n\n\n[Sidenote: To prove the Earth a Star]\n\n48.\n\nFirst of all define the eye; then show how the twinkling of a star\nexists really in the eye, and why one star should twinkle more than\nanother, and how the rays of the stars are born in the eye.  Say, that\nif the twinkling of the stars were, as it appears to be, really in the\nstars, that this {162} twinkling appears to extend in proportion to the\nbody of the star.  The star, therefore, being larger than the earth,\nthis motion made in an instant of time would in its velocity double the\nsize of the star.  Then prove that the surface of the atmosphere,\ncontiguous to fire and the surface of fire, where it ends, is the point\nin which the rays of the sun penetrate and bear the image of the\ncelestial bodies which are large when they rise and set, and small when\nthey are on the meridian.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Earth not the Center of Universe]\n\n49.\n\nThe earth is not the centre of the orbit of the sun, nor the centre of\nthe universe, but in the centre of its companion elements and united\nwith them; and if any one were to stand on the moon when the moon and\nthe sun are beneath us, our earth, with its element of water, would\nappear and shine for him just as the moon appears and shines for us.\n\n\n50.\n\nThe earth, shining like the moon, has lost a great part of its ancient\nsplendour by the decrease of the waters.\n\n\n51.\n\nNothing is generated in a place where is no sentient vegetable and\nrational life; feathers grow on birds and change every year; coats grow\non animals and are changed every year, with some {163} exceptions, like\nthe lion's beard and the cat's fur, and such; grass grows in the fields\nand leaves on the trees; and every year they are renewed in great part.\nThus we can say that the spirit of growth is the soul of the earth, the\nsoil its flesh, the ordered arrangement of rocks its bones, of which\nmountains are formed, the tufa its tendons; its blood the veins of\nwater which surround its heart, which is the ocean; its breathing and\nincrease and decrease of blood in the pulses the ebb and flood of the\nsea; and the heat of the spirit of the world is fire which pervades the\nearth, and the vital soul dwells in the fires which from various\napertures of the earth issue in springs and sulphur minerals and\nvolcanoes, as at Mount Etna in Sicily and in many other places.\n\n\n52.\n\nThe ancients called man the world in miniature, and certainly the name\nis a happy one, because man being composed of earth, water, air and\nfire, the body of the earth resembles the body of man.  As man has in\nhim bones for the support and framework of his flesh, likewise in the\nworld the rocks are the supports of the earth; as man has in him a pool\nof blood in which the lungs rise and fall in their breathing, so the\nbody of the earth has its ocean which rises and falls every six hours\nas if the world breathed; as from the aforesaid pool of blood veins\nissue which {164} ramify throughout the human body, so does the ocean\nfill the body of the earth with innumerable veins of water.  The body\nof the earth lacks sinews, which do not exist because sinews are made\nfor movement, and the world being in perpetual stability no movement\noccurs, and there being no movement, sinews are not necessary; but in\nall other points they resemble each other greatly.\n\n\n\n53.\n\nWater is the driver of nature.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Experience the Basis of Science]\n\n54.\n\nIn explaining the action of water remember to cite experience first and\nthen reason.\n\n\n55.\n\nDo not forget that you must put forward propositions adducing the\nabove-mentioned facts as illustrations, not as propositions,--that\nwould be too simple.\n\n\n56.\n\nWater in itself has no stability and cannot move of its own accord,\nsave to descend.  Water of its own accord does not cease to move unless\nit is shut in.\n\n\n57.\n\nThe body of the earth, like the body of animals, is intersected with\nramifying veins, which are all {165} united and constructed for the\nnourishment and life of the earth and of its creatures.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Water is the Blood of the World]\n\n58.\n\nThe water which rises in the mountains is the blood which keeps the\nmountain alive, and through this conduit or vein, nature, the helper of\nher creatures, prompt in the desire to repair the loss of the moisture\nexpended, proffers the desired aid abundantly; just as in a stricken\nspot in man you will see, owing to the aid which is brought, the blood\nabound under the skin in a swelling, so as to succour the spot which\nhas been stricken; likewise, in the case of the vine, when it is cut at\nits extremity, nature causes its moisture to rise from the lowest root\nto the end of the extremity which has been cut, and when this moisture\nhas been expended nature ceases not to supply it with vital moisture to\nthe end of its life.\n\n\n59.\n\nWater is that which is given to supply vital moisture to this arid\nearth; and the cause which propels it through its ramifications against\nthe natural course of weighty matter is the same which stirs the\nhumours in every kind of animal body.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Water on Mountains]\n\n60.\n\nWater, the vital moisture of the earthly machine, moves by reason of\nits natural heat.\n\n\n{166}\n\n[Sidenote: On the Water of Rivers]\n\n61.\n\nRivers, with their ruinous inundations, seem to me the most potent of\nall causes of terrestrial losses, and not fire, as some have\nmaintained; because the violence of fire is exhausted where there is\nnothing forthcoming to feed it.  The flowing of water, which is\nmaintained by sloping valleys, ends and dies at the lowest depth of the\nvalley; but fire is caused by fuel and the movement of water by\nincline.  The fuel of fire is disunited, and its damage is disunited\nand isolated, and fire dies where there is no fuel.  The incline of\nvalleys is united, and damage caused by water is collective, along with\nthe ruinous course of the river, until with its valley it winds into\nthe sea, the universal base and sole haven of the wandering waters of\nrivers.  But what voice or words shall I find to express the disastrous\nravages, the incredible upheavals, the insatiable rapacity, caused by\nthe headstrong rivers?  What can I say?  Certainly I do not feel myself\nequal to such a demonstration, yet by experience I will try to relate\nthe process of ruin of the rivers which destroy their banks and against\nwhich no mortal bastion can prevail.\n\n\n62.\n\nThe recesses of the bottom of the sea are perennial, the summits of\nmountains are transitory, whence it follows that the earth will become\n{167} spherical and covered with waters, and will be uninhabitable.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Transformations in Past and Future]\n\n63.\n\nThe shores of the sea continually increase in soil, towards the middle\nof the sea; the cliffs and promontories of the sea are continually\nbeing ruined and consumed; the mediterranean seas will dry up and all\nthat will remain will be the channel of the greatest river which enters\ninto them; this will flow to the ocean and pour out its waters together\nwith that of all the rivers which are its tributaries.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On the Earth's Vibration]\n\n64.\n\nThe subterranean courses of water, like those which are made between\nthe air and the earth, are those which continually consume and deepen\nthe beds of their currents.  The earth which is carried by rivers is\ndischarged at the end of their course, that is to say, the earth\ncarried from the highest part of the river's course is discharged at\nthe lowest depth of its course.  Where fresh water arises in the sea,\nthe miracle of the creation of an island is manifest, which will be\ndiscovered sooner or later in proportion as the quantity of water is\ngreater or less.  And an island of this kind is formed by the deposit\nof earth and stones made by the subterranean current of water in the\nchannels through which it passes.\n\n\n{168}\n\n[Sidenote: Nature's Law]\n\n65.\n\nNature never breaks her laws.\n\n\n66.\n\nNature is constrained by the cause of her laws which dwells inborn in\nher.\n\n\n67.\n\nWithout reason no effect is produced in nature; understand the reason\nand you will not need experience.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Cause discovered by Effect]\n\n68.\n\nBefore I proceed further I will make some experiments, because it is my\nintention to cite the experiment first and then to demonstrate by\nreasoning how such an experiment must necessarily take effect in such a\nmanner.  And this is the true rule by which investigations of natural\nphenomena must proceed; and although nature herself begins from the\nreason and ends in the result, we must pursue the contrary course and\nbegin, as I said above, from experience and by it seek out the reason.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Repetition of Experiment]\n\n69.\n\nBefore deducing a general rule from this case repeat the experiment two\nor three times and see if the same results are produced.\n\n{169}\n\n[Sidenote: Example of preceding Rule]\n\n70.\n\nIt several bodies of equal weight and shape are dropped one after\nanother at equal intervals of time, the distances between each\nsuccessive body will be equally increased.\n\nThe experiment to prove the above-mentioned theorem respecting motion\nmust be made thus: Take two balls of equal weight and shape and let\nthem fall from a great height so that when they start falling they\ntouch one another, and let the investigator stand on the ground and\nwatch whether the contact is maintained during their fall.  This\nexperiment must be repeated several times, so that the trial may not be\nmarred by any accident and the experiment vitiated and the spectator\ndeceived.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Necessity of Analysis]\n\n71.\n\nWe know definitely that sight is infinitely swift and in an instant of\ntime perceives countless shapes, nevertheless it only sees one object\nat a time.  Let us take an example.  You, O reader, will see the whole\nof this written page at a glance, and you will instantly realize that\nit is full of various letters, but you will not realize at that moment\nwhat these letters are nor what they signify; wherefore you will have\nto proceed word by word and line by line to take cognizance of these\nletters.  Again, if you wish to reach the summit of a building you must\nmount step by step, {170} otherwise it will be impossible for you to\nreach the summit.  And therefore I say to you whom nature has drawn to\nthis art, if you wish to attain to a thorough knowledge of the forms of\nobjects, you will begin by studying the details, and not proceed to the\nsecond until you have committed the first to memory and mastered it in\npractice, and if you do otherwise you will be wasting your time and\nprotracting your studies.  And remember first of all to acquire\ndiligence, which signifies speed.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Vision]\n\n72.\n\nOf the nature of the eye.  Here are the forms, here the colours, here\nthe form of every part of the universe are concentrated in a point, and\nthat point is so great a marvel!  O marvellous and stupendous\nnecessity! thou dost compel by thy law, and by the most direct path,\nevery effect to proceed from its cause.  These things are verily\nmiracles!  I wrote in my Anatomy how in so small a space the visual\nfaculty can be reproduced and formed again in its whole expanse.\n\n\n73.\n\nIn many cases one and the same thing is attracted by two violent\nforces,--necessity and power.  The water falls in rain and by necessity\nthe earth absorbs the humidity; the sun causes it to evaporate, not of\nnecessity, but by power.\n\n{171}\n\n[Sidenote: Unconscious Reasoning]\n\n74.\n\nThe pupil of the eye in the air expands and contracts according to\nevery degree of motion made by the sun.  And with every dilation or\ncontraction the same object will appear of a different size, although\nfrequently the relative scale of surrounding circumstances does not\nallow us to perceive these variations in any single object we look at.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Eye]\n\n75.\n\nThe pupil of the eye dilates and contracts in proportion to the variety\nof bright and dark objects which are reflected in it.  In this case\nnature has afforded compensation to the visual faculty by contracting\nthe pupil of the eye when it is offended by excess of light and by\ncausing it to dilate when offended by excess of darkness, like the\nopening of the purse.  And nature here behaves like the man who has too\nmuch light in his house and closes half the window, or more or less of\nit according to need; and when night comes he opens the window\naltogether so as to see better inside his house, and nature here adopts\na continued process of compensation, by continually regulating and\nreadjusting the expansion and contracting of the pupil, in proportion\nto the aforesaid obscurity and light which are continually reflected in\nit.\n\n\n{172}\n\n[Sidenote: Water surrounding the Globe Spherical]\n\n76.\n\nWhen you collect facts relating to the science of the motion of water,\nremember to place under every proposition the uses to which it may be\napplied, in order that this knowledge may not be fruitless.\n\n\n77.\n\nThis is a difficult question to answer, but I will nevertheless state\nmy opinion.  Water, which is clothed with air, desires naturally to\ncleave to its sphere because in this position it is without gravity.\nThis gravity is twofold,--the gravity of the whole which tends to the\ncentre of the elements, and the gravity which tends to the centre of\nthe waters of the spherical orb; if this were not so the water would\nform a half sphere only, which is the sphere described from the centre\nupwards.  But I see no means in the human mind of acquiring knowledge\nwith regard to this.  We must say, as we say of the magnet which\nattracts iron, that such a virtue is an occult property of which there\nis an infinite quantity in nature.\n\n\n78.\n\nIn the motion of earth against earth the repercussion of the portion\nstruck is slight.\n\nWater struck by water, eddies in circles around the spot where the\nshock has taken place.\n\nThe reverberation of the voice continues for a {173} great distance\nthrough the air; for a greater distance through fire.  The mind travels\nfor a still greater distance through the universe; but since it is\nfinite it does not penetrate into infinity.\n\n\n79.\n\nIf the water which rises on the summits of the mountains comes from the\nsea, whence it is propelled by its weight to a greater height than that\nof the mountains, why has this portion of the element of water the\npower to elevate itself to such an altitude and to penetrate the earth\nby so great an expenditure of labour and time, when the residue of the\nelement of water, whose only obstacle is the air which does not impede\nit, is not able to raise itself to a similar altitude?  And thou who\ndidst devise this theory, go and study nature, so that thou mayst cease\nto acquire such opinions of which thou hast made so great a collection,\ntogether with the capital and interest which thou dost possess.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On the Law of Gravity]\n\n80.\n\nThe sphere of the earth has gravity which increases in proportion to\nthe lightness of the element which contains it.\n\nFire is light in its sphere and its lightness increases in proportion\nto the weight of the element which contains it.\n\n{174}\n\nNo primary element has gravity or lightness in its own sphere.\n\n\n81.\n\nThe motion made by bodies which possess gravity to the common centre is\nnot produced by the tendency of the body to find this centre, nor is it\ncaused by attraction made by the centre, as by a magnet, drawing the\nweight towards it.\n\n\n82.\n\nWhy does not the weight remain in its place?\n\nIt does not remain because it has no resistance.\n\nAnd whither will it tend?\n\nIt will tend to the centre of the earth.\n\nAnd why not along other lines?\n\nBecause the weight which meets with no resistance will descend by the\nshortest way to the lowest depth, and the lowest depth is the centre of\nthe earth.\n\nAnd how does a weight find the centre of the earth with such directness?\n\nBecause it does not proceed at random, wandering by diverse courses.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Phenomena governed by Mechanical Laws]\n\n83.\n\nInstrumental science, that is to say, mechanics, is the most noble and\nmost useful of sciences, inasmuch as by means of it all living bodies\nwhich have movement act; and this movement has {175} its origin in the\ncentre of gravity which is placed in the middle, dividing unequal\nweights, and it has dearth and wealth of muscles and lever also and\ncounter-lever.\n\n\n84.\n\nSince these things are far more ancient than letters, it is no wonder\nif in our day no records exist to tell how these seas filled so many\ncountries.  But if some record had existed, conflagrations, floods,\nwars, changes of tongues and laws have consumed all that is ancient;\nsufficient for us is the testimony of objects born in the salt waters\nand found again in the high mountains far off from the seas of those\ntimes.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Heat the Vital Principle]\n\n85.\n\nHeat causes moisture to move, and cold arrests it; as is seen in a cold\ncountry which arrests the motion of the clouds in the air.  Where there\nis life there is heat, where there is vital heat there is movement of\nmoisture.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Against those desiring to correct Nature]\n\n86.\n\nThe act of cutting out the nostrils of a horse is a piece of ludicrous\nfolly.  And the foolish indulge in this practice as though they\nconsidered nature had failed to supply necessary wants, and man had\ntherefore to supplement her work.  Nature made two apertures in the\nnose, which each in {176} itself is half as large as the lung pipe\nwhence breath proceeds, and if these apertures did not exist the mouth\nwould abundantly suffice for breathing purposes.  And if you said to\nme, Why has nature thus provided animals with nostrils if respiration\nthrough the mouth is sufficient?--I would answer that nostrils are made\nto be used when the mouth is employed in masticating its food.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Trees]\n\n87.\n\nIf a tree has been stripped of its bark in some spot, nature makes\nprovision for this and gives a greater supply of nourishing sap to the\nstripped portion than to any other, so that in place of what has been\ntaken away the bark grows thicker than in any other spot.  And so\nimpetuous is the motion of the sap that when it reaches the spot which\nis to be healed, it rises higher like a bounding ball, in bubbles, not\nunlike boiling water.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Leaves of Plants]\n\n88.\n\nNature has so placed the leaves of the latest shoots of many trees that\nthe sixth leaf is always above the first, and thus in continued\nsuccession unless the rule is obstructed.  And this she has done for\ntwo useful purposes in the plant: firstly, since the branches and the\nfruit of the following year spring from the bud or eye which is above\nand in contact with the juncture of the leaves, {177} the water which\nfeeds the shoot may be able to run down and nourish the bud, through\nthe drop being caught in the hollow whence the leaf springs.  And the\nsecond advantage is that as these buds shoot in the following year, one\nwill not be covered by the other, since the five shoots spring on five\ndifferent sides.\n\n\n[Sidenote: From Known to Unknown]\n\n89.\n\nIn order to arrive at knowledge of the motions of birds in the air, it\nis first necessary to acquire knowledge of the winds, which we will\nprove by the motions of water in itself, and this knowledge will be a\nstep enabling us to arrive at the knowledge of beings that fly between\nthe air and the wind.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On the Flight of Birds]\n\n90.\n\nThe reason of this is that small birds being without down cannot\nsupport the intense cold of the high altitudes in which the vultures\nand eagles or and other great birds, well supplied with down and\nclothed with many kinds of feathers, [fly].  Again, the small birds,\nhaving delicate and thin wings, support themselves in the low air,\nwhich is denser, and they could not bear up in the rarer air, which\naffords slighter resistance.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On the Structure of Wings]\n\n91.\n\nThe shafts formed in the shoulders of the wings of birds have been so\ndevised by ingenious nature {178} as to occasion a convenient pliancy\nin the direct impetus which often occurs in the swift flight of birds,\nsince she found it more practical to bend a small part of the wing in\nthe direct flight than the whole of it.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On a Fossil Fish]\n\n92.\n\nO time! swift devourer of all created things!  How many kings, how many\nnations, thou hast overthrown, how great changes of kingdoms and\ndiverse vicissitudes have succeeded one another, since the marvellous\nbody of this fish, which perished in the caverns and intricate recesses\n[of the mountain].  Now undone by time, thou liest patient in this\nconfined spot; with thy fleshless and bare bones thou hast built the\nframework and the support of the mountain that is above thee.\n\n\n[Sidenote: We live by Others' Death]\n\n93.\n\nUnconscious life remains in what is dead, which when reunited to the\nstomach of living men, reacquires sentient and conscious life.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Against Doctors]\n\n94.\n\nMen are chosen to be physicians in order to minister to diseases of\nwhich they are ignorant.\n\n\n95.\n\nEvery man wishes to amass money in order to give it to the physicians\nwho are the destroyers of life; they ought therefore to be rich.\n\n{179}\n\n96.\n\nTake pains to preserve thy health; and thou wilt all the more easily do\nthis if thou avoidest physicians, because their drugs are a kind of\nalchemy, and there are as many books on this subject as there are on\nmedicine.\n\n\n97.\n\nOh! meditators on perpetual motion, how many vain projects of similar\ncharacter you have devised!  Go and join the seekers of gold.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Against the Seekers of Perpetual Motion]\n\n98.\n\nThe water which flows in a river moves either because it is summoned or\ndriven, or because it moves of its own accord.  If it is summoned,--and\nI mean sought after,--who is the seeker?  If it is driven, who is the\ndriver?  If it moves of its own accord, it gives evidence of reasoning;\nand reasoning in bodies which continually change their shape is\nimpossible, because in such bodies there is no consciousness.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Against Occult Sciences]\n\n99.\n\nI wish to work miracles.  I may have less than other and less energetic\nmen; and those who wish to grow rich in a day live a long time in great\npoverty, as happens, and will always happen, to alchemists, who seek to\nmake gold and silver, and to the engineers who wish from still {180}\nwater to obtain life and perpetual motion, and to the supreme\nfool,--the necromancer and the magician.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Of Astrology]\n\n100.\n\nThere is no part of astronomy which does not depend on the visual lines\nand on perspective, the daughter of painting; because the painter is he\nwho by the necessity of his art has begotten perspective, and it is\nimpossible to do without lines which include all the various figures of\nthe bodies begotten by nature and without which the art of geometry is\nblind.  And while the geometrist reduces every surface surrounded by\nlines to a square, and each body to the figure of the cube, and\nmathematics do the same with their cube roots and square roots, these\ntwo sciences deal only with the continuous and discontinuous quantity,\nbut they do not deal with the quality which constitutes the beauty of\nthe works of nature and the ornament of the world.\n\n\n101.\n\nHere the adversary will say that he does not want so much knowledge,\nand the mere skill of depicting nature will suffice him.  To which I\nmake reply that there is no greater error than to trust to our\njudgement without other reasoning, as experience, the enemy of\nalchemists, necromancers and other foolish intellects, has in all times\nproved.\n\n{181}\n\n[Sidenote: Against Alchemists]\n\n102.\n\nThe lying interpreters of nature affirm that quicksilver is the common\nseed of all metals.  They do not bear in mind that nature raises\nsubstances according to the diversity of things which she wishes to\nproduce in the world.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Against Necromancy]\n\n103.\n\nThe belief in necromancy is reputed to be the most foolish of all human\nopinions.  It is the sister of alchemy which gives birth to simple and\nnatural things; but it is all the more reprehensible than alchemy,\ninasmuch as it brings forth nothing but what is like itself, that is,\nlies.  This is not the case with alchemy, which is confined to the\nsimple products of nature, and whose function cannot be performed by\nnature herself, because in it there are no organic instruments with\nwhich it can work, such as the hands are to man and which have enabled\nhim to make glass, &c.  But necromancy, the flag and flying banner,\nblown hither and thither by the winds, is the guide of the silly\nmultitude, which constantly bears witness with gaping wonder to the\ncountless effects of this art; and whole books are written which\ndeclare that incantations and spirits are efficacious and speak without\ntongues and without vocal organs, without which it is impossible to\nspeak, and carry the heaviest weights, raising tempests and rain and\n{182} transforming men into cats, wolves and other beasts, although\nthey who affirm such things are the first to be transformed into\nbeasts.  And certainly if such necromancy existed, as is believed by\nlower intellects, there is nothing on the earth which would be so\neffectual both as regards the service and detriment of man; because if\nit is true that this art has the power to disturb the calm serenity of\nthe atmosphere, changing it into night and producing sparks and winds,\nwith fearful thunder and lightnings that fly through the darkness, and\noverthrowing high buildings with violent winds and uprooting forests\nand striking armies and shattering and overwhelming them, and\nproducing, in addition to this, devastating storms which rob the\npeasants of the fruits of their toil, what kind of warfare is there so\ndeadly to the enemy?  Who in naval warfare can be compared with him who\ncommands the winds and generates storms which ruin and sink any fleet\nwhatsoever?  Certainly he who could dispose of such violent forces\nwould be the lord of nations, and no human skill could resist his\ndeadly power.  The hidden treasures and gems concealed in the body of\nthe earth would be manifest unto him.  He would let himself be borne\nthrough the air from the east to the west, and through all the opposed\nregions of the universe.  But why should I proceed further?  What thing\nis there which could not be effected by such an art?  Nothing, save\n{183} the discovery of immortality.  And if it is true, why has it not\nremained among men who so greatly desired it, and led them to disregard\nany deity?  And I know that there are many who to satisfy a whim would\ndestroy God and the universe.  And if necromancy has not remained with\nman in spite of its being so necessary to him it can never have\nexisted, nor will it ever exist according to the definition of the\nspirit which is invisible in the body, for in the elements there are no\nincorporate things, for where there is no body there is a vacuum, and a\nvacuum cannot exist in the elements because it would be immediately\nfilled by them.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Deceptiveness of the Senses]\n\n104.\n\nThe eye in its given distances and by its given means deceives itself\nin the performance of its functions less than any other sense, because\nit sees in straight lines which form a cone, the base of which is the\nobject it perceives, and transmits it to the eye, as I intend to prove.\nBut the ear greatly deceives itself as to the position and distance of\nthe objects it apprehends, because the sonorous waves do not reach it\nin straight lines, like those of the eye, but by tortuous and reflex\nlines, and often the most remote seem to be nearest, owing to the\nperegrinations of such waves, although the voice of the echo is\ntransmitted to the sense by straight lines only.  The smell is less\ncertain of the spot whence the odour arises, but {184} taste and touch\nalone come into direct contact with the object which they apprehend.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On the Conception of Nothingness]\n\n105.\n\nThe smallest natural point is larger than all mathematical points, and\nthe proof of this is that the natural point has continuity, and\neverything which has continuity is infinitely divisible; but the\nmathematical point is indivisible because it is not a quantity.  Every\ncontinuous quantity is mentally infinitely divisible.  Among the\nmagnitude of things which are among us, the chief of all is\nnothingness; and its function extends to matter that does not exist,\nand its essence is in time in the past or in the future, and it has\nnothing of the present.  This nothingness has its part equal to the\nwhole and the whole to the part, and the divisible to the indivisible,\nand produces the same result by addition or subtraction, or if it be\ndivided or multiplied,--as is proved by arithmeticians by their tenth\ncharacter, which represents nothing.  And its power does not extend to\nthe things of nature.\n\nThat which is called nothingness is found only in time and in words: in\ntime it is found in the past and future, and not in the present; and\nthus in words among things which are said to be nonexistent or\nimpossible.  In time nothingness dwells in the past and the future, and\nnot at all in the present, and in nature it resides among the things\n{185} which are impossible.  Whence from that which has been said, it\nhas no being, because where there is nothingness there would be a\nvacuum.\n\n\n[Sidenote: On Spirits]\n\n106.\n\nWith regard to this matter, we have said on the previous page that the\ndefinition of a spirit is a power united with a body, because it cannot\nmove of its own accord nor acquire any kind of motion.  And if you say\nthat it moves itself, this cannot be within the elements, because if\nthe spirit is an incorporate quantity this quantity is a vacuum and the\nvacuum does not exist in nature, and if it did exist it would be\nimmediately filled by the rushing in of the element in which the vacuum\nwas formed.  So according to the definition of weight which runs:\n\"Gravity is an accidental power created by one element attracted to or\nsuspended in another,\" it follows that no element, weighing nothing in\nits own element, can have weight in the element which is above it and\nlighter than it; for instance, no one part of water has no more gravity\nor lightness than any other part, but if you were to draw it up into\nthe air, it would acquire weight, and this weight cannot sustain itself\nby itself; and it must therefore inevitably fall, and thus wherever\nthere is a vacuum in water it will fall in.  The same thing would\nhappen with a spirit among the elements where it would continuously\ngenerate a vacuum {186} in whatever element it might find itself, for\nwhich reason it is inevitable that it would move in a constant flight\nto the sky until it had quitted these elements.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Has the Spirit a Body?]\n\n107.\n\nWe have proved that a spirit cannot exist in the elements without a\nbody, nor move of itself by voluntary motion unless it be to rise\nupwards.  But now we will say that if such a spirit took a body made of\nair it would inevitably melt into air, because if it remained united it\nwould be separated and fall and form a vacuum, as we have described\nabove.  Therefore if it desired to remain in the air it is necessary\nthat it should blend with a quantity of air, and if it were united with\nthe air, two difficulties arise: that is, that it will rarefy that\nportion of air with which it is mingled, and this rarefied air will fly\nupwards and will not remain in the air which is heavier than itself;\nand besides this the ethereal spiritual essence is disunited, and its\nnature is changed, for which reason that nature loses some of its first\nvirtue.  There is in addition to these a third difficulty, and this is\nthat a body of this kind, made of air and assumed by the spirits, is\nexposed to the penetrating winds which continually sunder and scatter\nthe united portions of the air, eddying and whirling amidst the rest of\nthe atmosphere; therefore the spirit who would pervade {187} this air\nwould be dismembered or rent and broken up with the rending of the air\nof which it formed part.\n\n\n108.\n\nIt is impossible that the spirit, incorporated with a certain quantity\nof air, should move this air; and this is proved by the passage where\nit is said that \"the spirit rarefies that portion of the air with which\nit is mingled.\"  This air therefore will rise high above the other air,\nand the air will be set in motion by its own lightness and not by the\nvolition of the spirit, and if this air encounters a wind, the air will\nbe moved by the wind and not by the spirit which is incorporated in it.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Can the Spirit speak?]\n\n109.\n\nIn order to show whether the spirit can speak or not it is first\nnecessary to define the voice and the manner of its origin.  The\nfollowing will be our definition: The voice is the movement of air in\nfriction against a dense body, or a dense body in friction against the\nair (which is the same idea), and by this friction of the dense and the\nrare what is rare is condensed, and resistance is caused; and again,\nwhen the rare in swift motion and the rare in slow motion come into\ncontact, they condense one another and produce sound, and a great noise\nis made.  The sound or murmur made by the rare moving through the rare\n{188} with slow motion is like the great flame whence sounds issue in\nthe air; the exceedingly great noise made by the rare, when the air\nwhich is rare and swift mingles with that which is rare and in [slow]\nmotion, is like the flame of fire issuing from a great gun and striking\nagainst the air; likewise the flame when it issues from a cloud strikes\nthe air as it begets the thunderbolt.  Therefore we will say that the\nspirit cannot produce a voice unless the air be set in motion, but\nsince there is no air within, it cannot discharge what it does not\npossess; and if it wishes to move that air in which it is incorporated,\nit is necessary that the spirit should multiply itself; but that which\nhas no quantity cannot be multiplied.  In the fourth place it is said,\nthat no rare body can move if it has not a stable spot whence it may\ntake its motion, and more especially is this the case when an element\nmust move in its own element, which does not move of itself, excepting\nby uniform evaporation at the centre of the thing evaporated; as occurs\nin the case of the sponge squeezed in the hand under water, whence the\nwater escapes in every direction with equal motion through the spaces\nbetween the fingers of the hand which squeezes it.  As to whether the\nspirit has an articulate voice and can be heard, and as to what are\nhearing and sight--the wave of the voice travels through the air as the\nimages of objects travel to the eye.\n\n{189}\n\n110.\n\nO mathematicians, clear up this error!  The spirit cannot have a voice,\nfor where there is a voice there is a body, and where there is a body\nthere is occupation of space, which prevents the eye seeing what is\nbehind that space; therefore a body fills all the surrounding air, that\nis to say, with its own image.\n\n\n111.\n\nThere can be no voice where there is no motion or percussion of the\nair, there can be no percussion of the air where there is no\ninstrument, there can be no such thing as an immaterial instrument; and\nthis being so, a spirit can have neither voice, nor shape, nor force;\nand if it assumes a shape it can neither penetrate nor enter where the\nissues are closed.  If any one were to say that a spirit may take\nbodies of various shapes by means of concentrated and compressed air,\nand by means of this instrument speak and move with force--I reply to\nthis argument that where there are no nerves or bones, no force can be\nexpended in any movement made by these imaginary spirits.\n\n\n\n\n{193}\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\nAND\n\nTABLE OF REFERENCES\n\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n      * *\n       *\n\nOnly of late years have the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci seen the\nlight and the many difficulties been overcome which long proved an\nobstacle to their publication.  The labour of editing, deciphering and\ntranslating his many scattered and fragmentary codices was beyond the\nefforts of any single man.  The gratitude of the cultivated world is\ntherefore due to those who, like J. P. Richter, C. Kavaisson-Mollien,\nLuca Beltrami, Piumati, Sabachnikoff, and, last but not least, the\nscholars of the Academia del Lincei, have so faithfully devoted\nthemselves to this task, which alone has made possible the present\nlittle work.\n\nIt was unavoidable that the form in which these manuscripts have been\npublished should practically restrict their possession to the great\nlibraries.  But an excellent volume of selections from the writings of\nLeonardo, which are found in so haphazard a manner scattered through\nhis codices and intermingled with his drawings and diagrams, has been\npublished in Italy (Leonardo da Vinci: Frammenti Letterari e Storici,\nFlorence, 1900).  By kind permission of its editor, Dr. Solmi, this has\nserved as a basis for the text of the present translation.  The\nreferences, however, have {194} been verified with the complete\neditions of Leonardo's works, while a different arrangement has been\nmade of the text.\n\nL. E.\n\n\n\n[Sidenote: Table of References]\n\nTABLE OF REFERENCES\n\n[A] Les manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci.  Le manuscrit A de la\nBibliotheque de l'Institut.  Edit.  Ravaisson-Mollien, vol. i.  Paris,\n1880.\n\n[ASH I] Les manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci.  Les manuscrits H de la\nBibliotheque de l'Institut; 2038 (Ash I) et 2037 (Ash II) de la\nBibliotheque Nationale.  Edit.  Ravaisson-Mollien, vol. vi.  Paris,\n1891.\n\n[ASH II] Idem.\n\n[B] Les manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci.  Les manuscrits B et D de la\nBibliotheque de l'Institut.  Edit.  Ravaisson-Mollien, vol. ii.  Paris,\n1883.\n\n[C] Les manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci.  Les manuscrits C, E et K de la\nBibliotheque de l'Institut.  Edit.  Ravaisson-Mollien, vol. iii.\nParis, 1888.\n\n[C A] Il Codice Atlantico di Leonardo da Vinci nella Biblioteca\nAmbrosiana di Milano.  Rome; Milan, 1891.  (Still in course of\npublication.)\n\n[D] See B.\n\n[E] See C.\n\n[F] Les manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci.  Les manuscrits F et I de la\nBibliotheque de l'Institut.  Edit.  Ravaisson-Mollien, vol. iv.  Paris,\n1889.\n\n{195}\n\n[G] Les manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci.  Les manuscrits G, L et M de la\nBibliotheque de l'Institut.  Edit.  Ravaisson-Mollien, vol. v.  Paris,\n1890.\n\n[H] See Ash I.\n\n[I] See F.\n\n[L] See G.\n\n[Lu] Leonardo da Vinci: Das Buch vom Malerei.  Herausgegeben v. H.\nLudwig.  3 vols.  Berlin, 1882.\n\n[M] See G.\n\n[R] The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci.  Compiled and edited from\nthe original manuscripts by J. P. Richter.  2 vols.  London, 1883.\n\n[S] Leonardo da Vinci: Frammenti Letterari e Filosofici.  Trasceiti dal\nDr. Edmondo Solmi.  Florence, 1900.\n\n[T] Il codice di Leonardo da Vinci nella Biblioteca del Principe\nTrivulzio.  Edit.  L. Beltrami.  Milan, 1892.\n\n[V U] Leonardo da Vinci.  Il codice del volo degli uccelli ed altre\nmaterie.  Edit.  Sabachnikoff e Piumati.  Paris, 1893.\n\n\n\n[Sidenote: On Life]\n\nTHOUGHTS ON LIFE\n\n  Page.   No.  Reference.     Page.   No.  Reference.\n\n     3     1   R 4               4     4   CA 119 r\n     3     2   R 1339            5     5   Lu 9\n     4     3   R 841             5     6   R 1169\n\n{196}\n\n  Page.   No.  Reference.     Page.   No.  Reference.\n\n     5     7   S 69             14    36   R 838\n     6     8   C A 119 r        14    37   Lu 16\n     6     9   C A 91 v         15    38   Lu 65\n     6    10   C A 119 r        15    39   S 96\n     6    11   S 71             15    40   B 4 v\n     7    12   R 1178           15    41   F 96 v\n     7    13   S 72             15    42   C A 79 r\n     7    14   T 2 v            15    43   S 98\n     8    15   C A 112 r        15    44   S 99\n     8    l6   Lu 65            16    45   G 47 r\n     9    17   S 74             16    46   C A 119 v\n     9    l8   S 336            l6    47   R 837\n     9    19   S 74             17    48   R 1210\n     9    20   R ll75           19    49   I 18 r\n     9    21   M 58 v           19    50   S 67\n    10    22   V U 12 r         19    51   R 1135\n    10    23   S 76             19    52   C A 169 v\n    10    24   C A 119 r        20    53   S 114\n    11    25   C A 117 r        20    54   S 115\n    11    26   C A 76 r         21    55   Ash II 4 r\n    11    27   C A 117 r        21    56   C A 59 r\n    12    28   C A 76 r         21    57   T 6 r\n    12    29   F 27 v           21    58   G 74 v\n    12    30   S 83             22    58   S 121\n    12    31   R 1150           22    60   S 122\n    12    32   C A 154 r        22    61   S 123\n    13    33   C A 154 r        23    62   H 89 v\n    13    34   C A 86 r         23    63   S 168\n    13    35   T 20 v           23    64   F 49 v\n\n{197}\n\n  Page.   No.  Reference.     Page.   No.  Reference.\n\n    24    65   S 169            36    94   C A 29 v\n    24    66   R 846            36    95   C A 12 r\n    24    67   R 1219           36    96   C A 71 v\n    25    68   R 1187           37    97   S 205\n    25    69   R 838            37    98   T 34 R\n    27    70   C A 90 r         37    99   T 34 r\n    28    71   C A 119 v        37   100   T 27 r\n    29    72   R 839            37   101   C A 71 r\n    29    73   Lu 499           38   102   Lu 77\n    30    74   T 7 v            38   103   R 1132\n    30    75   S 180            39   104   R 1133\n    30    76   R 916            39   105   S 208\n    31    77   R 798            39   106   T 340\n    31    78   S 187            39   l07   T 14 v\n    32    79   C A 119 r        39   108   C 117 v\n    32    80   R 1              39   109   G 49 r\n    32    81   Lu 292           40   110   S 209\n    33    82   S 201            41   111   H passim\n    34    83   H 60 r           44   ll2   S 214\n    34    84   H 32 r           45   113   H 48 v\n    34    85   S 202            45   114   S 2l6\n    34    86   C A 76 r         45   115   R 827\n    35    87   S 202            46   116   R 844\n    35    88   H 33 v           47   117   R 8l6\n    35    89   S 203            47   118   S 221\n    35    90   T 33 v           48   119   S 221\n    35    91   T 23 v           48   120   S 229\n    35    92   Ash i 34 v       48   121   C 15 v\n    36    93   C A 76 r         50   122   R 1358\n\n{198}\n\n  Page.   No.  Reference.     Page.   No.  Reference.\n\n    51   123   S 217            54   127   R 300\n    52   124   R 1355           55   128   S 382\n    52   125   Lu 24            55   129   S 199\n    53   126   Lu 16\n\n\n[Sidenote: On Art]\n\nTHOUGHTS ON ART\n\n    59     1   C A 141 v        85    24   Lu 29\n    60     2   S 274            85    25   Lu 31\n    60     3   Lu 438           87    26   Lu 30\n    60     4   Lu 27            88    27   Lu 32\n    60     5   Lu 34            90    28   S 276\n    61     6   Lu 7             90    29   Lu 9\n    62     7   Lu 8             90    30   Lu 13\n    64     8   Ash II 19 v      91    31   S 275\n    65     9   Lu 2             92    32   Ash II 20 r\n    66    10   Lu 7             92    33   Ash II 26 r\n    66    11   Lu 14            93    34   Ash II 25 r 24 v\n    68    12   Lu 10\n    68    13   Lu 46            95    35   Lu 35\n    68    14   Lu 18            96    36   Lu 36\n    69    15   Lu 20            97    37   Lu 38\n    71    16   Lu 21            98    38   Lu 40\n    72    17   Lu 22            99    39   Lu 41\n    73    18   S 251           100    40   Lu 405\n    77    19   S 257           100    41   Lu 62\n    80    20   Lu 27           100    42   R 498\n    82    21   Lu 27           100    43   Lu 57\n    82    22   Lu 26           101    44   Ash II 16 v\n    83    23   Lu 28           101    45   Lu 58\n\n{199}\n\n  Page.   No.  Reference.     Page.   No.  Reference.\n\n   101    46   R 103           116    70   Lu 107\n   102    47   R 104           116    71   S 337\n   103    48   Lu 404          117    72   S 338\n   104    49   Ash II 22v      117    73   S 336\n   105    50   Lu 54           117    74   S 337\n   105    51   I 130 v         118    75   Lu 108\n   105    52   C A 76 v        119    76   Lu 109\n   106    53   C A 119 v       120    77   A 23 r\n   106    54   G 8 v           120    78   K 110 v\n   106    55   Ash II 17 v     120    79   S 338\n   107    56   C A 181 v       121    80   Lu 15, 25\n   107    57   S 200           125    81   R 1021\n   108    58   S 284           125    82   Lu 806\n   109    59   S 78            127    83   Ash I 18 v\n   111    60   S 283           128    84   Ash I 21 r\n   111    61   G 33 r v        129    85   Ash I 30 v\n   111    62   R 796           133    86   S 2l6\n   112    63   Ash II 26 r     134    87   Ash II 22 v\n   113    64   Ash II 28 r     134    88   S 335\n   113    65   Ash II 26 r     135    89   S 338\n   114    66   Ash II 25 r     136    90   S 339\n   114    67   Ash II 24 v     137    91   S 341\n   115    68   Lu 53           137    92   S 342\n   116    69   S 122           137    93   S 340\n\n\n[Sidenote: On Science]\n\nTHOUGHTS ON SCIENCE\n\n   141     1   Lu 1            141     3   R 3\n   141     2   R 110           141     4   R 6\n\n{200}\n\n  Page.   No.  Reference.     Page.   No.  Reference.\n\n   142     5   R 1157          154    34   F 6 r\n   142     6   G 96 v          155    35   F 8 r\n   142     7   T 12 r          155    36   F 34 v\n   142     8   Lu 1            155    37   G 34 r\n   143     9   Lu 33           156    38   F 85 v\n   146    10   E 8 v           156    39   S 136\n   146    11   R 1156          158    40   S 141\n   146    12   K 49 r          158    41   S 139\n   146    13   I 102 r, v      158    42   S 140\n   147    14   A 24 r          159    43   S 128\n   148    15   S 124           160    44   R 902\n   148    l6   T 36 v          161    45   S 138\n   148    17   T 36 v          161    46   S 137\n   148    18   H 141 r         161    47   S 137\n   148    19   E 22 r          161    48   S 138\n   149    20   I 68 r          162    49   S 139\n   149    21   R 859           162    50   S 139\n   149    22   F 52 r          162    51   S 142\n   150    23   S 126           163    52   C A 80 r\n   150    24   S l27           164    53   H 95 r\n   151    25   B 63 r          164    54   H 90 r\n   151    26   S 125           164    55   S 88\n   151    27   C 26 v          164    56   F 30 v\n   151    28   A 60 r          164    57   R 1000\n   151    29   S 124           165    58   R 970\n   152    30   C 28 v          165    59   H 77 r\n   152    31   R 860           165    60   R 965\n   153    32   S 131           166    61   R 953\n   154    33   S 132           166    62   F 52 v\n\n{201}\n\n  Page.   No.  Reference.     Page.   No.  Reference.\n\n   167    63   G 49 v          176    88   S 118\n   167    64   K 22            177    89   E 54 r\n   168    65   S 113           177    90   C A 66 v\n   168    66   S 113           177    91   E 52 v\n   168    67   C A 147 v       178    92   S 148\n   168    68   E 55 v          178    93   S 167\n   168    69   S 88            178    94   S 200\n   169    70   M 57 r          178    95   S 200\n   169    71   R 107           179    96   S 200\n   170    72   C A 337 v       179    97   R 1206\n   170    73   T 39 r          179    98   K 101 v\n   171    74   I 202           179    99   R 796\n   171    75   D 5 r           180   100   Lu 17\n   172    76   F 2 v           180   101   S 66\n   172    77   C A 75 v        181   102   S 122\n   172    78   H 67 v          181   103   R 1213\n   173    79   F 2 v           183   104   S 181\n   173    80   F 69 v          184   105   Ash III 27 v\n   174    81   S 129           185   106   S 192\n   174    82   C A 153 v       186   107   R 1214\n   174    83   V U 3 v         187   108   R 1215\n   175    84   R 984           187   109   C A 187 v\n   175    85   S 142           189   110   S 196\n   175    86   C A 76 r        189   111   B 4 V\n   176    87   C A 76 r\n\n\n\n\n  OF THIS VOLUME\n\n  TRANSLATED BY MAURICE BARING\n  AND EDITED BY LEWIS EINSTEIN\n  WITH TYPES & DECORATIONS\n  BY HERBERT P. HORNE\n  CCCIII COPIES WERE\n  PRINTED\n\n\n  OPTIMUM\n  VIX SATIS\n\n\n  BY D. B. UPDIKE\n  AT THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS\n  BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS\n  IN THE MONTH OF\n  SEPTEMBER\n  MCM\n  VI","title":"Thoughts on Art and Life","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":47506}