The Sum of Perfection

Concerning the impediments on the part of the body.

Chapter 2.

WE have already defined for you in general terms the impediments to this work. But now, we address you in a more specific discourse in this chapter, and more clearly, and we shall recount to you all those impediments most fully and in order. We say, therefore, that if one does not possess his complete organs original: "organa"; in this context, it refers to the physical limbs and senses necessary for lab work., he will not be able to reach the completion of this work; such as if he were blind, or mutilated in his extremities, because he is not assisted by the limbs by which this art is perfected, which serve as the ministers of nature. If, however, the body of the craftsman should be weak and sick—such as the bodies of laborers or lepers whose limbs fall away, or those struggling in the final stages of life, and the feebleness of an already decrepit age—they do not reach the completion of the art. Therefore, by these natural incapacities of the body, the craftsman is hindered in his intention.

Concerning the impediments on the part of the soul.

Chapter 3.

WE have set before you one chapter in which we recounted in straightforward language the manifest impediments depending on the body of the craftsman. It remains now to recount the impediments on the part of the soul, which are the greatest impediments against the completion of this work.
We say, therefore, that he who does not have natural talent original: "ingenium"; refers to innate intellectual capacity or the "spark" of invention. and a soul subtly investigating the principles of na- The text cuts off here, to be continued as "naturalia" (natural things) on the following page.