Previously Unpublished Works, Fascicle 16

...natures and the one person of Christ and his other works, I have brought in authorities which he Likely referring to Aristotle or a previous author cited wrote from a philosophical perspective. Thus I am able, and I wish, and I ought to turn over original: "revolvere," meaning to study or contemplate repeatedly mathematical matters through the authorities of Cassiodorus and the sayings of those who philosophize for the sake of divine praises. 5 This is especially true since he teaches these things gloriously in his philosophical books. For I have shown in the Metaphysics referring to Bacon's own work or Aristotle's Metaphysics that Christian philosophers ought to extol philosophy more highly than non-believers do.

Second part of this fourth chapter.

10 CASSIODORUS, therefore, in his preface to On the Arts and Disciplines of Secular Studies, writing in praise of mathematics, says: "In the Latin language, we can call Mathematics 'instructional' original: "doctrinalem". By this name, although we are able to describe all teachable things—whatever is taught—this branch of study has nevertheless claimed this 15 title for itself specifically because of its excellence." And in the treatise On Mathematics he also says: "The sciences original: "disciplinales," referring to the mathematical arts are those which never deceive by misguided opinions, and therefore they are called by such a name." He then adds: "When we turn these over 20 through frequent meditation, they sharpen the senses and reveal the light of knowledge. By the Lord's granting, they lead us to that heavenly contemplation. The holy fathers rightly persuade us that these should be read. For a great part of our appetite is drawn away from fleshly things through them, and they make us desire those things which we can perceive in the heart only by the Lord's granting." 25 And if we wish to introduce his specific opinions on each of the famous branches of mathematics, we can say that in the same treatise he writes in praise of geometry: "Indeed, if it is right to say so, the holy Divinity—when f. 74 a 2. He gave various species and forms to his creatures, when 30 He distributed the courses of the stars by His venerable power and made those things that move run along fixed lines, and established those which are fixed in a certain place—whatever is well ordered and completed can be applied to the qualities of this science." For every perceptible creature original: "creatura sensibilis," a being that can be perceived by the senses desires its own proper configuration, 34 whether for motion or for rest, or for any other condition or operation. The beauty of any thing arises according to the elegance of its shape. In praise of arithmetic he says: "Take away the calculation original: "compotum," referring to the science of numbering and time-keeping (or the count)..."