A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our EraThorndike, Lynn
Religion
A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era
Thorndike, Lynn
Magic -- History; Science -- History
who settled in the island state of Cos, and there opened a school.
Afterwards Antipater pursued the subject; then there was Archinapolus,
who also left rules for casting nativities, based not on the moment
of birth but on that of conception.” After listing a number of
natural philosophers and other astronomers and astrologers, Vitruvius
concludes: “Their learning deserves the admiration of mankind; for they
were so solicitous as even to be able to predict, long beforehand, with
divining mind, the signs of the weather which was to follow in the
future.”[865]
[Sidenote: Divergence between theory and practice, learning and art.]
Such a passage demonstrates plainly enough Vitruvius’ full confidence
in the art of casting nativities and of weather prediction, but it has
no integral connection with his practical architecture or even any
necessary connection with the construction of a sun-dial, which is what
he is actually driving at. But Vitruvius believed that an architect
should not be a mere craftsman but broadly educated in history,
medicine, and philosophy, geometry, music, and astronomy, in order
to understand the origin and significance of details inherited from
the art of the past, to assure a healthy building, proper acoustics,
and the like. It is in an attempt to air his learning and in the
theoretical portions of his work that he is prone to occult science.
But the practical processes of architecture and military engineering
are free from it.
[Sidenote: Evils in contemporary learning.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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