Il natural desiderio di sapere - Pontifical Academy of Sciences

ON THE NATURAL DESIRE FOR KNOWLEDGE 141fullest consensus and union of so many literati of value subsequently sowell known? Hence the very enumeration among these academics 100 willdenote a degree of notable eminence, of greater doctrine, the time, theexercise, the profit made and the testimony provided by one’s work andone’s colleagues, to whom the common reputation of the Academy andeach one’s own shall always be so much at heart. This then will alwaysnecessarily be pretended 101 and always give no little amount of spirit andardor to the subjects, while the difference in value and merits in scholarshipwill also be well notified.Now, turning our attention to gain and its comforts, we can observethat the desire for it will not constitute any impediment to studiesaddressed in such a manner. First, for its being by noble and elevatedsouls rather shunned and abhorred. Second, for its being in no smallmeasure provided to these subjects, as has been said above, and for theirbeing much more able to hope for and attain it, both through the utilityof the sciences themselves, which facilitate and reduce to perfection everyaction, every project, as well demonstrated by Thales, as also by therewards which come to recognized and true doctrine from the just liberalityof the great. 102 That part which alone is licit, to desire and seek gainfor the necessities of living, here ceases altogether; the other is removedboth as vile and unworthy and as in no small measure fulfilled and satisfiedby the above-said fruits and rewards, which, without being aspired toor sought after, come to study and knowledge of their own accord.Thus eliminated, therefore, all those obstacles which cooled or extinguishedthe native desire for knowledge, and added the above-mentionedamenities and facilities for its fulfillment, whence its worthiness comes tobe obscured, 103 the more keenly and efficaciously the utility, the sweetnessof the object presents itself. The more the former grows and the more itimpassions and nourishes us in the works themselves, the easier it is tofeel it than to believe it. The assiduous operations render themselves so100 Membership in the Lynceans.101 Academic enrolment will thus necessarily always be aspired to.102 One can hope for and attain gain both because the sciences are useful insofar asthey facilitate all actions and projects, as the case of Thales demonstrates (cf. Aristotle,Politics, I, 11, 1259a 6 ff.), and for the money that the just liberality of the powerful distributesto true and recognized erudition.103 Amenities and facilities are necessary, but the dignity of the desire for knowledgeis obscured by them (if, as one seems to understand, is it the scientist himself who is tobe responsible for it).