OF THE GREAT ART OF KNOWING,

Through this universal method, not only are any arts or sciences compared, but all the reasons of the most hidden things—taking their beginnings from nature—can be taught and investigated through various ascents, descents, and circuits of the mind. I did not think it worthwhile to display the full glory of this art immediately from the very entrance original: "veſtibulo," referring to the porch or entry of a temple, both because no one can easily survey its extent and widely stretched dominion unless they have entered more deeply or directed their mind to its very inner sanctum; and because its brilliance and unspeakable sharpness so strike every nerve of the soul, and so exceed all faculty, strength, and abundance of speech, that there is no flow of genius so fertile, no oration so studiously crafted, that could grasp the appearance or magnitude of such true praise. Hence it is better not to pursue it with far-fetched praises, but rather, as was customary in the Egyptian mysteries, to venerate it with silence alone, like a Deity original: "Numinis inſtar", being content for now with a rough image of its use, until this Silenus A reference to the "Silenus boxes" mentioned by Erasmus and Plato—plain on the outside but containing images of gods within. opens himself entirely and bathes all things in a sudden ray of divinity.

But, to return to our proposed purpose: I would have you know, Reader, that the logic of this entire invention turns as if on two Hinges. The first is the Combination of principles among themselves, which is done through Synthesis (which they call composition); this is nothing other than the reduction of many principles and predicates into a unity, or the diffusion from unity into a multitude of things, much like a spring diverted into innumerable streams, which we call Analysis or resolution. The second Hinge is the Analogical Art, by which—through various shadows of similarities—we discover the smallest things in the greatest, the middle in the lowest and highest, and the highest in the middle and lowest; in a word: we perceive that all things are in all things in their own way. Thus, there is nothing in the universal nature of things that does not correspond to all and each under a certain proportion and analogy. This follows such an order and progress that he who has mastered it exactly will find that nothing is denied to him in penetrating the inner depths of the encyclopedia In the 17th-century sense: the "circle of learning" or the interconnectedness of all knowledge. of arts and sciences, insofar as our rules allow.

Carried aloft into the deep sea of contemplation by these two wings of the Combinatory and Analogical art—in a carriage far more sublime than that which they say Triptolemus A figure from Greek myth who traveled the world in a winged chariot to spread the knowledge of agriculture. once used—and observing the images and similarities of individual things, and the most firm laws of their agreements and disagreements, I saw that they were governed simultaneously by unity and multitude. I saw them pregnant with the Sympathy of acting and passive things, and quickly dissolved by the Antipathy of causes, bringing about the change of death. I saw also that the reasons for particular things lie hidden, expressed under the "bark" or outer shell of certain general principles; once the distinction of these principles is known, the distinction of particulars is no longer hidden. Thus, it became immediately known to me that the constitution of any art arises from the difference of its own specific traits from common ones. For where I first understood the commonality of many things, I thought I should not stop until I had unearthed all the differences in those things enclosed within species. I found by experience that the many shadowy images of dissimilarities in the multitude of things could not be brought into view and open light unless all things that enjoy a certain cognition were first enclosed within one cognition and property, clothed in the essence of a single genus.

And this is our Combinatory Art, which we promise to the World in this work; which through nine Erotematic From the Greek "erotema," meaning "question." These are the nine fundamental questions (Who? What? Where? etc.) used in the Lullian method. propositions, eighteen principles (both absolute and relative), along with nine subjects encompassing the scope of all nature, we compose and arrange by such a method that from there, a knowledge of irrefragable truths may be obtained within the far and wide-stretched boundaries of the entire Encyclopedia. All of this will be made more clear in what follows.

CHAPTER II.

Whether a universal science exists.

Since, according to the testimony of Plato, nothing is sweeter than to know all things original Greek: "μηδὲν γλύκιον ἢ πάντα εἰδέναι", and little sparks of wanting to know are implanted in man by Nature; certainly, power would be given in vain unless it were reduced into action. Unless, I say, the intellect—variously cultivated from its potential by use and habit—should in the course of time know all things (that is, reach as far as possible a suitable knowledge of all things), I do not see how this would be contrary to the human condition, or why it should seem denied to the intellect, provided we do not transcend the limits of human knowledge. Who does not see that in all things one "genus" is always found, in which all species participate and agree? Whence, if the genus is fully known, the notion of the species cannot remain entirely hidden; just as the partitioning of rivers led into various branches of streams—