THE GREAT ART OF KNOWLEDGE,

OR THE COMBINATORY ART,

THE FIRST INTRODUCTORY BOOK,

The Great Art of Lull referring to Ramon Llull, a 13th-century philosopher who created a system of logic using rotating circles is examined, the defects committed by him are pointed out, a new structure of the Great Art is set forth, the elements and principles are declared, the canons and precepts are prescribed, and finally the method and reasoning of the entire Art is placed before the eyes of the curious reader through various paradigms and specimens.

PART I.

Concerning the method, definition, discovery, and propagation of the Great Art, or the Combinatory Art.

CHAPTER I.

The excellence of the Art.

Large ornamental drop-cap letter 'A' featuring intricate floral and vine patterns within a square border.

As we begin this Great Art, or Combinatory Art, under the happy guidance of the Divine Will; it is, I say, the art of arts, the workshop of the sciences, the fertile nursery of minds, and the key to all human cognition, through which the widest access lies open to all things that pertain in any way to the notice and knowledge of the intellect; hence we have deemed that it should be addressed by no better name than that of the "Great Art." We entitle it the "Combinatory Art" because, by the shrewd scrutiny of the mind, it aptly compares all things to each, and each to all, beautifully composes them, and exactly distributes them into a most perfect edifice of the human mind. This is the analytical art original Greek: τέχνη ἀναλυτικὴ of the noble mathematician Diophantus, by which, from a few principles known by the light of nature, he opens any of the deepest mysteries of Arithmetic and Geometry with such mental fecundity as his monuments demonstrate to us sufficiently and more. Our method, however, is not only easy, expeditious, and obvious; but it is also universal, which does not pride itself on the effort of a single art, but through an ingenious weaving of combinations, it seems to contemplate a most close marriage with the entire Encyclopedia the "circle of learning" or the complete system of knowledge, by a truly admirable device—namely, through the doctrine of methodical ranks and circles fabricated according to the pattern of nature. By the aid of these, not only is there a method for discovering and handing down Polypædia universal learning or "many-fold" education...