Surviving Works, Vol. II

change the various juices into one flavor by a certain mixture and the property of their own spirit. We too shall commit to the stylus whatever we have sought out through diverse reading, so that it may coalesce into an order, with that same stylus organizing it. For things are better preserved in the mind when they are distinct, and the distinction itself, not without a certain ferment by which the whole is seasoned, combines various libations into the use of a single flavor. Thus, even if it appears whence something was taken, it will nevertheless appear to be something other than what it was taken from. We see nature do this in our own body without any labor of ours. The food we take, as long as it remains in its own quality and floats as solid matter, is a burden to the stomach. But when it has been changed from what it was, only then does it pass into strength and blood. Let us do the same for the minds that are nourished by these things, so that whatever we have drunk we do not allow to remain whole, lest it be foreign, but rather let it be concocted into a certain digestion. Otherwise, it can go into memory, but not into character. Let us collect from all sources so that one thing may be made from all, just as a single number is made from individual units. May our mind do this: let it hide everything it has been helped by, yet show only what it has produced. For those who prepare fragrant perfumes take care above all that the things being seasoned do not retain the scent of any one specific thing, but rather they are to confuse the juices of all...