CORRECTION

OF THE FOOLISH, A TRACT

QUITE USEFUL AND AUTHENTIC

Since the correction of all things is their augmentation, it is written in many of the sayings of the Philosophers that nature is improved by art beyond the movement it had in its first form. No art can labor except through the mediation of nature, since nature itself labors in art intrinsically and secretly through the administration of the artisan. From this it follows that the imitation of the virtue of nature is an augmentation and a labor, and the augmentation of the thing itself, since nature perfects its own level, which it can naturally perfect, and it cannot pass beyond that unless it is hindered by a contrary force, although indeed art does not transcend nature by creating a new nature through simple labor.
How art imitates nature

And therefore it is said that art imitates nature, not that it builds a new one, but that it subtilizes the virtue of that nature. For this reason, art begins to perfect where nature fails, namely by uncovering the subtle nature enclosed within the thing, and manifesting it.