Il natural desiderio di sapere - Pontifical Academy of Sciences

ON THE NATURAL DESIRE FOR KNOWLEDGE 129with studious labors addressed sinisterly to this, as occurs with physiciansand lawyers, who, right after their course, generally obtain it, which herecannot and must not be expected, but by establishment of revenues and privatedonations, of which these noble professions alone among the othershave been up to now totally deprived, having yet the others both Seminariesand Colleges which in some part and for some time provided them andafterwards the fruits of their profession itself. 75 This exemption and freedomwill also be from business both domestic and familial and from anykind of noise and molestation which in such places so provided will ceasealtogether, and there will be instead that quiet which, to elevate the mindand maintain it always valorous in its work, is necessary.Nor will this be limited to years and terminated with the course, degreeor some prefixed time, but with the very life of the subjects, having toaccompany their studious labor for which life must appear short, not thatit be thought to terminate it ahead of that; it will be therefore assiduous,unremitting, on the contrary always greater without any interruption orweariness; nor will it be restricted to the writings or teachings of this or thatmaestro, but all kinds of cognition, which by our own invention or by communicationfrom others may come to us, will always be received andsought in an universal exercise of contemplation and practice. 76And above all, the work will always proceed ahead with our own intellects,by philosophizing with all sincerity, without any passion that couldalter it in the search for truth, not preferring one author, one sect morethan another, but always with equal disposition toward all persons, ponderingthe things themselves and the arguments, without their beingweighted or lightened by the authority of those who present them.There will be copious instruction offered by the live voices of thelearned; there will be complete libraries, likewise all of the amenities fororderly experimentation and peregrination, 77 the help of companions,75 The other professions first have seminaries and colleges and later their own proceeds.76 An important sentence which restates the criticism of dogmatism expressed earlier(and which will again be repeated shortly hereafter), and indicates, as an alternative,the ‘universal exercise of contemplation and practice’ applied without prejudice to everyfield of knowledge. Naturally, practice is not to be understood as the instrumental dimensionso often criticized by Cesi but as an incipient appeal for experimentation, thus makingit possible to read this formulation as the epitome of an almost Galileian and alreadymodern methodology; cf. G. Olmi, ‘In essercitio universale di contemplatione e prattica’:Federico Cesi e i Lincei, cit.77 Travel for instruction or research.