You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>Cause</strong>, principle and unity<br />
nature, which is the substratum of art, is a board and receives the being of<br />
board from what was a tree, and from the matter which was a board it<br />
receives the being of a door and is door.<br />
GERVASIO. Now I understand it well. But it seems to me that this substratum<br />
of nature cannot be a body, nor have a definite quality. For,<br />
passing sometimes into such and such a form and natural being, sometimes<br />
into another form and being, it does not manifest itself corporally, like<br />
wood or stone, which always show through as they are, even if considered<br />
as material or substratum, no matter what the form.<br />
TEOFILO. Well said.<br />
GERVASIO. What shall I do, then, when I happen to be discussing this<br />
thought with some stubborn person who refuses to believe that there is<br />
only one matter underneath all nature’s forms, just as there is only one<br />
beneath all the forms of each art? For we cannot deny what we see with our<br />
own eyes, but what we see solely through reason may be denied.<br />
TEOFILO. Send him away or do not answer.<br />
GERVASIO. But what if this stubborn individual demands evidence of<br />
this matter and is a respectable person, more liable to send me away than I<br />
am him, and takes my refusal to answer as an insult?<br />
TEOFILO. What would you do if a blind demigod, worthy of every honour<br />
and respect, were so insistent, importunate and stubborn as to demand<br />
knowledge of and evidence for colours, or even for the external shapes of<br />
natural things? What if he asked, for example: What is the form of a tree?<br />
What is the form of mountains? of stars? Or again: What is the form of a<br />
statue, of a robe, or other artificial things, which are so plain to our eyes?<br />
GERVASIO. I would tell him that if he had eyes, he would not ask for evidence<br />
of these things, since he could see them for himself, but since he is<br />
blind, it is impossible for others to show them to him.<br />
TEOFILO. Likewise, you could say to your other people that if they had<br />
an intellect, they would not demand evidence of that natural matter, but<br />
could see it for themselves.<br />
GERVASIO. Some would be humiliated by that answer, and others<br />
would see it as too cynical.<br />
TEOFILO. Then, you can speak in less open fashion, as following: ‘Most<br />
illustrious sir,’ or ‘Sacred Majesty, just as some things cannot be evident<br />
but for the hands and by the sense of touch, others only through hearing,<br />
others by taste, so this matter of natural things cannot be brought to light<br />
except through the intellect.’<br />
58