Federico Cesi
An Address to the Lincean Academy, 1616
If there has arisen in any man the natural desire for knowledge, fed by the nobility and dignity of its aim, enhanced by the joy it offers, and encouraged by its usefulness and the perfection which it confers on men of every rank and profession, it will be known to him that learning is peculiar to man among all living creatures, and that for this purpose he is endowed with reason, for which there is no other or higher use than understanding. We shall say that very few men attain perfect knowledge and complete fulfillment of this innate desire. But is our natural inclination to satisfy at least a part of it, to obtain some special knowledge, therefore to remain unfulfilled? Shall the faculty of reason given us by God be hindered by the very resolve to make use of it? What are we to blame for this? Is it men, for their idleness in so important a pursuit, or for slackness in its execution? Or is it the fault of the object itself, for its difficulty renders it all but inaccessible because of the lack of methods and everything necessary? Let us admit at the outset that such a project, such a worthy intention, inspires in us such a terror of hard work as is sufficient to destroy it completely in most people, and to decrease it in all of us... The delight and utility of learning come to be regarded as if from afar, as though cut off from us by the hardships of the long labor involved...
But we do not flee from the effort required with as rapid a step as we pursue its reward. Nor do we understand that true and abundant reward is obtained through knowledge of the sciences, for the eye strays at once to money and possessions, the sources of pleasure and ease, reputation and power; these appear real and commune rewards, while any others seem illusory and insubstantial, and it is a common opinion based on experience that sciences, particularly those which contribute most to learning, bring in but small profit. Moreover many men fear that they will spend more time and money acquiring knowledge then they can hope to recoup later by applying it, which they consider an uncertain and dubious reward, indefinitely deferred. They recognize that chance plays its part and none will voluntarily submit to this, in view of the time and effort required. Consequently little of the desired reward can be hoped for from law and medicine, and none at all from philosophy and mathematics, which are the true realm of the inborn desire to learn, and men devote themselves more readily to manners from which they can expect more certain results...
By its very nature studying requires Masters who can lecture, and books which set forth the material at greater length, revealing to us the efforts and speculations of others, and conveying them to our understanding in different words and various ways. They help us to hear the teaching of those far away and long past and place us at any time within the conversation of the greatest men of letters. Not in this all; if we are to achieve anything on our own account we must study that great, true and all-encompassing book of the world. For this we must visit its different parts, and exercise ourselves in observing it and experimenting, so as to base upon these two good methods a profound and perceptive understanding, by first observing things as they are and as they differ, and then noting how we ourselves can vary and change them: we must discover how many parts (of the world) must be seen for this, what difficulties there are of access to certain places and times, undiscouraged by the fate of Pliny...
That purity and openness of mind which, free of all passion and partiality, can of itself cleave to the desired truth, today seems so alien to the greater part of learned men and students, though it is all the more necessary. Appeal is made to this or that ancient writer; this or that faction is upheld. And so while things thought out by others are taught, and only the fruits of othersŐ intellect are enjoyed, because of the sterility and laziness of our own thinkers we are reduced to the condition of windbags rather than philosophers.
This passionate devotion to Authority, once expressly forbidden by Aristotle and now scrupulously observed by the Aristotelians, prevents the necessary study of not only the book of the Universe but of any book that does not come from the favored sect and the revered Masters...
