or of the COMBINATORIC ART, BOOK I.

The sources can be easily recognized if we follow the stream from the spring to the branching channels of the section. Who will consider it absurd for diverse works of diverse arts to be perfected by a single instrument? Do we not reach a knowledge of innumerable mixtures from the single nature of the elements? Who does not know that through the single efficacy of vegetative nature, countless species of plants and trees subsist? Who is ignorant that by the single aid of the senses, the cognition of countless things is prepared for us, and by a single operation of the mind, the way lies open to us for the secret mysteries of arts and inventions? Do we not observe that in man, as a single subject, corporeal and incorporeal things harmonize? Is it not established that all things which shine in the majesty of nature—though separated by such great differences of powers and properties—are nevertheless bound by a wondrous concord and are held and sustained within the single circuit and influence of the world? Indeed, all these things, created by the single intellect of the Supreme Mind, are governed and preserved. Justice embraces the whole harmony of virtues; happiness, the influence of all goods; finally, in the one person original: "hypostasi" of Christ, divine and human nature agree. Since, therefore, common principles contain within themselves the reasons for particular things, who will doubt—unless he be irrational original: "ἄλογος" (alogos)—that the mind of man, by the guidance of reason, can extend itself to the knowledge of all the aforementioned things? This is done all the more easily as the method of teaching it is more expedited and the path for proceeding is smoother. Hence, whoever knows how many are in one, and one in many, will have the business finished. Many have indeed attempted this Art, but it has been granted to few "to reach Corinth" A classical proverb meaning to achieve a difficult goal.. Some hoped it could be achieved through Dialectic or Logic, as if through the most fitting instrument of knowing. Others through various arrangements original: "Syntaxes" of arts and sciences; some through methodical frameworks of Metaphysical speculations. There were even those who thought it could be accomplished under allegorical circles of the mind, fashioned after the likeness of "all-forming" nature. And although all these men, in a most praiseworthy effort, approached this second art of scientific unity, few executed it with a method that could either satisfy thirsty wits or possess ease joined with readiness. But so that all these things may be clear, let it be so.

CHAPTER III.

Decorative woodcut initial 'V' at the start of Chapter III, containing a scene with human figures in a classical or mythological landscape with architecture in the distance.
Just as the human intellect, driven by the desire for knowing, leaves no stone unturned so that it might arrive at an extraordinary knowledge of all things by a short path; so there have not been lacking, in past ages, men illustrious in learning and wisdom who, by continuous labor and assiduous meditation of the mind, finally reached that art by which they could give an account of all proposed questions, however difficult. And in Academic discussions, they promised that they would discourse according to the rule of the art they had invented on whatever subject anyone wished to hear. Quintilian reports that some of these emerged from the ancient school and that of his own time, among whom Cicero numbers Corax, Lysias the Sicilian, Gorgias of Leontini (the rival of Socrates), Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, Prodicus of Chios, and Protagoras of Abdera, from whom Enathlus is said to have learned the art which Hippias of Elis sold for ten thousand denarii. Valerius Maximus reports that for Gorgias, because of his remarkable faculty for speaking on all subjects, the first statue of solid gold was placed in the temple of Delphic Apollo. In what the Gorgian Art actually consisted, Cicero hints when he expresses his marvelous skill in speaking and demonstrates that a wealth of facts and sciences was available to him; for he says that he brought forth "like joined to like" and "similarly distinguished"; likewise "contraries related to contraries," which for the most part would fall rhythmically of their own accord, even if one were not trying. Truly, as all these things have been buried by the forgetfulness of time, they have left us no memory of how to acquire it or of the established method.

Who cultivated this art.

Nevertheless, in later ages, there were men conspicuous in every kind of science who cultivated this art with the greatest zeal. Among these, Raymond Lull deservedly holds the first place; some call him, because of the excellent light of genius in which he excelled, the "God-taught" original: "θεοδίδακτον" (theodidaktos) or Divinely Illuminated Doctor.

Lull.

He composed a work in a style that was indeed unpolished, even crude and unrefined, but of a subtlety not to be despised. This work some call the Great Art, others the Gateway of Arts and Sciences; some the Great Lullian Art; others the Inventive Art of Truth (the name bestowed by the Author), in which, by a new method devised by himself, he opened the approach to all science even for the unlearned, and even for those of an age below...