Il natural desiderio di sapere - Pontifical Academy of Sciences

ON THE NATURAL DESIRE FOR KNOWLEDGE 113from their own voluntary application and to scare off their maestros andliterate friends. But it shall suffice to recall what Petrarch remarkedabout this among royalty, as he praises the great king Roberto of Naples 34who preferred letters to his own kingdom, and censures another king ofthat time 35 who, on the contrary, impeded the studies of his son, who wasinclined to them, and treated his teachers as enemies. But let’s now considerhow many more are excluded from the perfection of knowledge, asthey do not use those means and do not have those aids which are necessaryto attain it. An exquisite regularity and good order is just as necessaryto learning as are strength and security of foundations to a largebuilding; nor are they so easy and ordinary to have, subject to variationas they are from chance and abuses and the different thoughts orcaprices of teachers and customs of places, with one approving one roadand the other another, while in scholastic courses one really courses andpasses; and as it is much easier in these to stumble, very often to fall, andeven plummet than it is to move regularly forward. The hindrances ofshouting, chattering, clowning, the rocky shoals of bad and immoralcompanions and deviations are many, the ordinary path of the preceptor’sauthentic writings oh how it for the most part becomes distorted,obscure, scabrous and far from the desired end! The help of good adviceand exhortations, of conferences and the friendly exchange of thoughtsand ideas, which usually so encourage us and carry us forward, oh howrare, how disorderly and casual! Who in this great forest of writers ofsuch different stature and condition can signify to us which ones areappropriate to our studies, thoughts, and labors? Perhaps it will be possibleto read them all and secure them for ourselves? Where is the gainthat is made in disputation, which is all reduced to musicians, impresariosand printers? Who cannot see that these are altercations in which,as the ancient poet said so well, 36 the truth is lost rather than found, andthat they serve to demonstrate nothing except cheek and dicacity 37 and,with all this making a big exhibition and spending thousands of conclusions,one then comes round to the end having concluded nothing. Themore they would appear to be necessary, purity and sincerity of the intellectwhich, free from any kind of passion or affection, can grasp by itself34 Petrarch, Rerum memorandarum libri, I, 37, 9, and passim.35 An unnamed king of France, ibidem.36 Probably Persius, Sat., I.37 Verbal quickness, verging on sarcasm or petulance.