_A._ I see you have wrested out of the hands of our antagonists this weapon of algebra, so as they can never make use of it again. Which I consider as a thing of much more consequence to the science of geometry, than either of the duplication of the cube, or the finding of two mean proportionals, or the quadrature of a circle, or all these problems put together. FINIS. DECAMERON PHYSIOLOGICUM; OR, TEN DIALOGUES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. BY THOMAS HOBBES OF MALMESBURY. TO WHICH IS ADDED THE PROPORTION OF A STRAIGHT LINE TO HALF THE ARC OF A QUADRANT, BY THE SAME AUTHOR. [Illustration] DECAMERON PHYSIOLOGICUM. CHAPTER I. OF THE ORIGINAL OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. _A._ I have heard exceeding highly commended a kind of thing which I do not well understand, though it be much talked of, by such as have not otherwise much to do, by the name of philosophy; and the same again by others as much despised and derided: so that I cannot tell whether it be good or ill, nor what to make of it, though I see many other men that thrive by it. _B._ I doubt not, but what so many do so highly praise must be very admirable, and what is derided and scorned by many, foolish and ridiculous. The honour and scorn falleth finally not upon philosophy, but upon the professors. Philosophy is _the knowledge of natural causes_. And there is no knowledge but of truth. And to know the true causes of things, was never in contempt, but in admiration. Scorn can never fasten upon truth. But the difference is all in the writers and teachers. Whereof some have neither studied, nor care for it, otherwise than as a trade to maintain themselves or gain preferment; and some for fashion, and to make themselves fit for ingenious company: and their study hath not been meditation, but acquiescence in the authority of those authors whom they have heard commended. And some, but few, there be, that have studied it for curiosity, and the delight which commonly men have in the acquisition of science, and in the mastery of difficult and subtil doctrines. Of this last sort I count Aristotle, and a few others of the ancients, and some few moderns: and to these it is that properly belong the praises which are given to philosophy. _A._ If I have a mind to study, for example natural philosophy, must I then needs read Aristotle, or some of those that now are in request?