Page:Mathematical collections and translations, in two tomes - Salusbury (1661).djvu/117

 memory for he did not write to the vulgar, nor is he obliged to spin out his Sillogismes with the trivial method of disputes; nay rather, using a freedome, he hath sometimes placed the proof of one Proposition amongst Texts, which seem to treat of quite another point; and therefore it is requisite to be master of all that vast Idea, and to learn how to connect this passage with that, and to combine this Text with another far remote from it; for it is not to be questioned but that he who hath thus studied him, knows how to gather from his Books the demonstrations of every knowable deduction, for that they contein all things.

But good Simplicius, like as the things scattered here and there in Aristotle, give you no trouble in collecting them, but that you perswade your self to be able by comparing and connecting several small sentences to extract thence the juice of some desired conclusion, so this, which you and other egregious Philosophers do with the Text of Aristotle, I could do by the verses of Virgil, or of Ovid, composing thereof * Centones, and therewith explaining all the affairs of men, and secrets of Nature. But what talk I of Virgil, or any other Poet? I have a little Book much shorter than Aristotle and Ovid, in which are conteined all the Sciences, and with very little study, one may gather out of it a most perfect Idea, and this is the Alphabet; and there is no doubt but that he who knows how to couple and dispose aright this and that vowel, with those, or those other consonants, may gather thence the infallible answers to all doubts, and deduce from them the principles of all Sciences and Arts, just in the same manner as the Painter from divers simple colours, laid severally upon his Pallate, proceedeth by mixing a little of this and a little of that, with a little of a third, to represent to the life men, plants, buildings, birds, fishes, and in a word, counterfeiting what ever object is visible, though there be not on the Pallate all the while, either eyes, or feathers, or fins, or leaves, or stones. Nay, farther, it is necessary, that none of the things to be imitated, or any part of them, be actually among colours, if you would be able therewith to represent all things; for should there be amongst them v. gr. feathers, these would serve to represent nothing save birds, and plumed creatures.

And there are certain Gentlemen yet living, and in health, who were present, when a Doctor, that was Professor in a famous Academy, hearing the description of the Telescope, by him not seen as then, said, that the invention was taken from Aristotle, and causing his works to be fetch't, he turned to a place where the Philosopher gives the reason, whence it commeth, that from the bottom of a very deep Well, one may see the stars in Heaven, at noon day; and, addressing himself to the company,