Natural Magic

remembering the sentence of Cicero Roman orator and philosopher, who says thus: It is good that those who have a desire to leave very useful things to posterity have experimented, and then leave to memory that of which they have made good proof and are well assured. And to this I directed my efforts in order to find the true rather than the false; for I knew well that it was not by an affectionate desire for glory, which is worth nothing, or by hope of gain or profit, that they wrote these things which were meant to endure forever. Rather, it was to find the secrets of nature, and to manifest them with great effort of invention, then to put them into writing. And where we found that they had referred to things in accordance with the truth, without doubt, I did not love that so much as I perceived this solicitude for having augmented and solicited their courage. And after a long trial of natural things, we have clearly recognized that they have been more covetous of writing than of experimenting, seeing that they have written many things entirely removed from the truth, one taking and borrowing from others as if their work were so high or difficult. Cato Roman statesman recounts that the nature and property of a small vessel of ivy wood is to pour out and put out the wine that you put in it, to know if there is water mixed in it; for if there is water, it will remain, and the wine will come out, seeing that the said wood does not hold