Treatise on Universal Harmony

give the reason, nevertheless we should not for all that value it less, since it seems that all the other sciences have difficulties that cannot be surmounted by the human mind; for the Geometers have not yet shown whether the squaring of the circle is impossible; the Algebrists have not encountered all the Equations; the Engineers have not shown how one must build a fortress that becomes always stronger as it is battered more violently; the Alchemists have not determined how much salt, sulfur, and mercury are in each body, nor how much one of these principles weighs more or less than the other two, when they are in the same quantity; the Physicists cannot give the reason for all the effects of the magnet, nor why the sea is often higher at the new moon than at the full moon: why iron placed on a barrel prevents the wine from being troubled by thunder: why the same thunder breaks bones, and the sword in the scabbard without offending it, and without burning the skin; which is also done, it is said, with a certain violet powder which one calls powder of