Il natural desiderio di sapere - Pontifical Academy of Sciences

ON THE NATURAL DESIRE FOR KNOWLEDGE 151multiplication will consist the propagation of peace, of goodness, andvalor; the public will have more individuals to apply to business of whateverkind, able, spirited, prudent, judicious; it will have more individualswho are observers of justice and friends of peace, so that there will be lesstransgression of the laws and people will live with more tranquillity andwithout tumults and seditions, without the desire for novelty or quarrels.It is also undoubtedly true that, with the help of such aids, those who stopat the ordinary goal of studies will continue on; many who do not now studyin any way will apply themselves to do so, moved by example, facilities, andthe exhortation of others; [many] in whom the affect of the will yields to thedefect of comfort, on seeing this well supplied, will set themselves to it withall ardor, and particularly those who wish to live in the secular world, wherethey do not see any provision 120 for this; hence, having multiplied its subjects,its masters, and its disciples, the propagation of the sciences, with both theirvoices and their works, will follow, flourishing and fertile.The public will enjoy many more books and compositions, I saylearned and useful, and doubly so, since many which, as is often the case,either for neglect or accident or for malevolence are lost, remain in thisway assured; and many, which would not have been produced, in thismanner will issue forth, coming so to be communicated to everyone thelong labors of years and years of observation, experimentation, and contemplationof all these subjects.Likewise the public will enjoy all that is useful, the inventions, bothgreat and admirable, which will come from the acumen of such intellects,as in their continuous research, experimentation, and contemplation theydiscover the properties of things, always taking note of their causes andeffects. Thus admirable instruments are born, the rarest medicines arefound, fires, arms, defenses, machines, the operations of waters, 121 so manysecrets to facilitate the arts necessary to human life, for conveniences, forhealth, for food itself, as can be seen in what the naturalists have done upto now, and particularly what we will show in our Filosofica panurgia. 122 Butmuch more still, with such orders, is to be hoped for in the future. 123120 Those who wish to remain lay people but who find no condition that allows themto do this.121 Read: all works for the utilization of bodies of water in general.122 For this project cf. Indicatio Philosophicorum operum, in G. Gabrieli, L’orizzonteintellettuale e morale di Federico Cesi illustrato da un suo zibaldone inedito, op. cit., pp.57-58. The brief notes on this work begin like this: Sapientiae Potentia prolest est.123 Certainly, the most Baconian passage of the prince’s speech.