Cause Principle Unity

Cause, principle and unity
POLIINNIO. Quidni? per quandam analogiam [Why not? by a certain
analogy].
GERVASIO. Per quandam analogiam, I believe you to be a great monarch,
but if you were a woman, I would ask you if you have a place to lodge a baby,
or stick one of those plants Diogenes speaks of. 7
POLIINNIO. Ha, ha! Quodammodo facete [Quite prettily put]. But such
questions are not befitting a sage and scholar.
GERVASIO. If I were a scholar, and if I considered myself wise, I would
not come here to learn with you.
POLIINNIO. You, yes, but I do not come to learn, for nunc meum est
docere; mea quoque interest eos qui docere volunt iudicare [my office now is to
teach; my concern is also to pass judgement on those who wish to teach].
Hence, I come with another purpose than that which must bring you,
whose role is that of apprentice, novice and disciple.
GERVASIO. For what purpose?
POLIINNIO. To judge, I said.
GERVASIO. Indeed, for one of your sort it is better to judge the sciences
and doctrines than for others, since you are the only ones to whom the liberality
of the stars and the munificence of fate have bequeathed the power
to draw out the sap from words.
POLIINNIO. And consequently also from thoughts, which are bound
to words.
GERVASIO. As soul to body.
POLIINNIO. Words that, rightly understood, give a thorough grasp of
the sense: thus, from a knowledge of languages (in which I, more than anyone
else in this city, am expert, and in which I count myself no less learned
than any who run minerval schools) is derived the knowledge of all science.
GERVASIO. So, all who understand Italian will grasp the Nolan’s
philosophy?
POLIINNIO. Yes, but it also takes some exercise and judgement.
GERVASIO. A while ago, I thought that this exercise was the main thing,
because someone who knows no Greek can nonetheless comprehend all
Aristotle’s meaning, and also pick out many of his errors. Similarly we
see that the idolatry surrounding the authority of that philosopher (mainly
regarding natural things) has been entirely abolished among all who
grasp the notions of this other sect; a man who knows no Greek, nor
Arabic, nor perhaps Latin, like Paracelsus, can have a better knowledge of
7 Alludes to the obscene saying of Diogenes, ‘planto hominem’.
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