ON

THE PHONURGIA OF KIRCHER

A CONGRATULATORY POEM. original: "Syncharmicum"; a term derived from Greek used in Neo-Latin to describe a poem of shared joy or celebration.

Until now Fame has built only small Triumphs,
And she thinks she has barely touched the praises of Kircher.
Greater applause was meant to be scattered throughout the wide World,
And a louder sound echoing from a full voice.
Behold, a new trumpet strikes the high-reaching air,
And one which can surpass even Fame in its voice.
Seek instead new Worlds from here with no boundary,
And new lands beneath a new star.
This World is narrow; that other world is surely more resonant,
When the stirred-up voice strikes both sides.
So that there might be one voice of nature, and one more worthy Echo Echo is both a physical phenomenon and a mythological figure; Kircher’s "Phonurgia" is the first modern treatise dedicated entirely to acoustics and the science of echoes.,
Let it long to speak of Kircher with a single mouth.
Certainly, undaunted, he explores the subterranean
Kingdoms, having dared to enter the dark dwellings.
He follows the paths of the winds and the black recesses,
Where the earth often groans when its pact is broken.
And while he is lifted up again to gaze at the heavenly air,
At the thunder and the lightning hurled by a swift hand,
"What wonder is it," he says, "to resound with such a crash,
Which ruin seemed to bring back the ancient Chaos In ancient philosophy, Chaos is the formless, disordered state of the universe before divine order was imposed; Kircher views the loud "crash" of nature as a momentary return to this disorder.."
"A blind force, fit to be restrained by no laws,
Neither reason, but rather madness shakes these weapons."