Mosaic Philosophy

Those who are devoted to the truth will be established in it with better faith, provided that holy authority agrees with the rest. And although two such testimonies Referring to reason and scripture seem sufficient to confirm the truth for those wise in it and to remove every doubt or scrap of hesitation, yet the disbelief of this world—and especially of common men—seems to boil with such a fervor of stubbornness. Indeed, such cunning and subtlety has crept into the spirits of even some moderately learned men, who are led more by practical sense than by spiritual contemplation, that unless they see and touch with their own hands like Saint Thomas, or at least look upon some evident sign, they are unwilling to give faith to a thing, however true it may be. For this reason, since I am entering the philosophical wrestling ground original: "palæstram philosophicam" alone against those heathen philosophers who, relying on worldly wisdom, have fashioned a merely human philosophy, I find it necessary to first arm myself with the weapons of

Hercules. For just as the Apostle Saint Paul fought against the "beasts of Ephesus" A reference to 1 Corinthians 15:32; "beasts" represents fierce human opponents in the likeness of men, so I am setting out to contend against those Peripatetic Peripatetic: A follower of Aristotle's philosophy, which the author views as overly focused on the physical world. philosophers of Athens who take many forms, like Proteus. Therefore, I have proposed first to forge solid weapons from reasons and from the more secret treasury of Nature, and to temper them with the authority and power of the Holy Scriptures. Finally, I will produce an ocular experience—or demonstration—by means of which, in place of the Herculean club or mace, I may more easily tame and subjugate that irrational monster, Incredulity; for there is no enemy more destructive or more ferocious to the human race than this. To better bring this to the desired end, I here bring to light a certain Experimental instrument, commonly known to the world, by which the eyes of the unfaithful may be directed toward the path of truth, and turned away from the sayings of a bastard and sophisticated philosophy toward the goal of truth.

CHAPTER II.

Man is so excessively greedy for glory and so desirous of fame and reputation that it matters little to him how or by what means he acquires it—whether directly or indirectly. This was the sole reason why the Heathen philosophers surreptitiously ascribed to themselves those principles of philosophy which by the highest right belonged to the wise and divine philosopher Moses; they veiled and gilded their theft with new names or titles, so that in this way they might show off those things as having been established by their own inventions (as will be discussed more broadly below). In a clearly similar way, this experimental instrument or glass of ours has many spurious or counterfeit inventors who, because they have slightly changed the shape of the model, boast that its invention was first devised by themselves. As far as I am concerned, I think it is just and honest to give

each person what is their own. For it will be no disgrace to me to ascribe the principles of this philosophy of mine to my teacher Moses, since he himself received them formed and designated by the very finger of God. Nor can I rightfully claim or demand for myself the primary construction of this instrument, even though I have used it (albeit in another form) in my History of the Macrocosm The author's massive work on the history of the universe and elsewhere to demonstrate the truth of my philosophical argument. Indeed, I acknowledge that I found it graphically specified and geometrically drawn in an old manuscript five hundred years of age. Therefore, I will first set forth for you the form under which I found it in the aforementioned ancient monument; then, I will describe its shape and position as it is commonly known and used among us.