Origin of Discoveries Attributed to the Moderns (1796) - Page 8

For none of us is able to both establish and complete the art at once; rather, it is a thing to be cherished

if, over many years, those who follow—receiving the works of those who went before—might themselves

one day bring it to completion. Galen. in Aphorisms, Book 1. original: "Οὐδεὶς γὰρ ἡμῶν ἱκανός ἐστι συνθήσασθαί τε ἅμα καὶ τελειῶσαι τὴν τέχνην..." This quote from Galen, a prominent Greek physician and philosopher in the Roman Empire, sets the stage for the book’s argument: that modern scientific "discoveries" are often completions of work begun by ancient thinkers.