Iacobi Acontii Tridentini de methodo, hoc est, de recta investigandarum, tradendarumque artium, ac scientiarum ratione

from the military service he brings back not profit, for the sake of which he had set out, but loss.

But it should be considered that we will have knowledge of a thing only if we have perceived the definitions and causes or effects, both of the thing itself generally and of any of its parts or species. And we shall be understood to know the causes or effects if we have also known the causes of the causes themselves and the effects of the effects, up to the extreme ones, both generally and through any parts and species, down to the most simple parts and the lowest species.

VII. And indeed, such knowledge can be had of those things which are finite, perpetual, and immutable: of which kind are all universals. But of infinite and corruptible things, such as singulars, there is no science. For all things either depend on our will, such as whatever we do and make, or they do not depend on our will. And of these, some consist of matter, such as all natural things; others, although they are in matter, are nevertheless separated from matter by the intellect, such as quantities, about which