And it is truly the case that where reason is lacking it is
supplemented by noise, which never happens in matters of certainty. On
account of this we will say that where there is noise there is no true
science, because truth has one end only, which, when it is made known,
eternally silences controversy, and should controversy come to life
again, it is lying and confused knowledge which is reborn, and not
certainty. But true science is that which has penetrated into the
senses through experience and silenced the tongue of the disputers, and
which does not feed those who investigate it with dreams, but proceeds
from the basis of primary truths and established principles
successively and by true sequence to the end; as, for instance, what
comes under the heading of elementary mathematics, {145} that is,
numeration and measurement, termed arithmetic and geometry, which treat
with the highest truth of the discontinued and continued quantity.
Here there will be no dispute as to whether twice three make more or
less than six, nor whether two angles of a triangle are less than two
right angles, but eternal silence shall ignore all controversy, and the
devotees of the true science will finish their studies in peace, which
the lying mental sciences cannot do. And if thou sayest that true and
established science of this kind is a species of mechanics, because
they can only be completed by the hand, I will say the same of all the
arts, such as that which passes through the hand of the sculptor, which
is a kind of drawing, a part of painting; and astrology and the other
sciences pass through manual operation, but they are mental in the
first place, as painting, which first of all exists in the mind of the
composer, and cannot attain to fulfilment without manual labour. With
regard to painting, its true and scientific principles must be
established: what constitutes a shaded body, what constitutes a primary
shade, a derivative shade, what constitutes light: that is, darkness,
light, colour, size, shape, position, distance, propinquity, motion,
rest, which are comprehended by the mind only, and without manual
labour. And this is the science of painting which remains in the mind
of those who meditate on it, from which {146} issues the work in due
time, and is infinitely superior to the aforesaid contemplation or
science.
[Sidenote: Mechanics]
10.
Mechanics are the paradise of scientific mathematics, because with them
we arrive at the fruits of mathematics.
[Sidenote: Mechanics and Experience]
11.
Experience is indispensable for the making of any instrument.
12.
Proportion is not only to be found in figures and measurements, but
also in sound, weight, time and position, and in whatever power which
exists.
[Sidenote: Reason and Experience]
13.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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