Pagina 340 de 734

So it is plain that Science must mean the most accurate of all

Knowledge; but if so, then the Scientific man must not merely

know the deductions from the First Principles but be in

possession of truth respecting the First Principles. So that

Science must be equivalent to Intuition and Knowledge; it is, so

to speak, Knowledge of the most precious objects, with a head

on.[23]

I say of the most precious things, because it is absurd to

suppose πολιτικὴ,[24] or Practical Wisdom, to be the highest,

unless it can be shown that Man is the most excellent of all that

exists in the Universe. Now if "healthy" and "good" are relative

terms, differing when applied to men or to fish, but "white" and

"straight" are the same always, men must allow that the

Scientific is the same always, but the Practically Wise varies:

for whatever provides all things well for itself, to this they

would apply the term Practically Wise, and commit these matters

to it; which is the reason, by the way, that they call some

brutes Practically Wise, such that is as plainly have a faculty

of forethought respecting their own subsistence.