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FIRST DAY.

Interlocutors,

SALVIATI, SAGREDO, AND SIMPLICIO.

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Salv. It seems to me that the frequent practice of the famous Arsenal of you Venetian Gentlemen, and in particular that part which is called Mechanical, offers a wide field for philosophizing to speculative minds. Since every sort of tool and machine is continually put to work there by a large number of craftsmen, among whom, both through observations made by their predecessors and through those which they themselves are continually making through their own ingenuity, it is inevitable that there are many who are most expert and of very refined discourse.

Sagr. You are not mistaken at all. And I, being curious by nature, frequently visit this place for my own diversion, and for the practice of those whom we call Proti foremen or master craftsmen, due to a certain preeminence they hold over the rest of the workmen. Their conversation has often helped me in the investigation of the reason for effects that are not only marvelous but also recondite and almost unthinkable. It is true that sometimes it has also put me into confusion and despair of being able to penetrate how that which, far from any concept of mine, sense demonstrates to me to be true, can follow. And yet, that which that good old man was saying to us a little while ago is a dictum and a very well-known proposition, but one which I considered entirely vain, like many