The Various and Ingenious Machines

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by many tortuous streams which they receive into their bosom, the more they are distanced from the fountains from which they departed, the more they discharge their liquid volumes into the sea with great abundance of water. Thus it has happened with the Mechanical art, which began first to discover to the world the manner of cultivating the fields, and subjecting the horse and the ox to the yoke to plow the earth: then it taught us to attach them, sometimes two, sometimes four, to carriages, and by pulling them, to have them transport from our borders to the extreme limits of the earth, and from those countries to ours, victuals, merchandise, and other great loads, such as stones, timber, trees, and similar things, which Carpenters, Marble-workers, and Architects use in their trades. But what shall I say of the industry and subtlety of this Mechanical art? Since it itself taught us to push forward deep ships with the oar alone, and with the yard raised high with unfurled sails to make them go lightly with the blowing of the winds. Which effect comes simply from the lever; inasmuch as the yard or mast of the ship serves as a lever, which is sustained by the foot or the place where it is planted. Afterward, the weight that one must move is the ship itself, and the mover is the blowing of the winds, which inflate the sails. In the end, with a small rudder put at the extremity of the stern, it is made to lean and turn where one wants, and the great machines of the galleys are moved. Furthermore, by the means of this, by way of a pump, gardeners draw cold waters from deep wells to water the herbs. The merchant cannot exercise his merchandise without Arithmetic, which is a species of Mathematics: which, being a science of discrete quantity, and as known by itself, considers even and odd numbers, without comparing them to another. Without Geodesy, which depends on the Mathematics, how could we measure the extent of the plains, the height of the mountains; how low the earth is, the width and length of some created thing? Who can understand the grandeur of the celestial bodies without them?