The Summary of Physics Restored

3The first errors of the ancients to confront me concerned the principles of Nature; they were also the worst and the roots of the rest. As I reflected more deeply on first matter and universal form, from which the other things proceeded, and on the number of the elements, their qualities, opposition, position, and interchange, the matter appeared to me otherwise than in the received opinion. Neither the weight of the more authoritative philosophers nor their arguments, as uncertain as they were ingenious, could turn my mind away from Nature’s light, to which it had wholly bound itself. Thus wonder drew my mind into a love of knowledge. Love, which uses fiery rays for weapons, carried my kindled mind into Nature’s more sacred approaches. Yet I long hesitated over whether I ought to share with you, disciples of philosophy, the secrets drawn from there. I suspected that the undertaking might be unwelcome to you and full of dangerous hazard for me. For I felt myself warned by the years, which are the best counsellors, to learn prudence from another’s misfortune. I had seen clearly enough how many writers had suffered shipwreck in their reputation; how sparing minds are in approving the labours of others and how ready to condemn them; how bold they are in fashioning and cherishing phantoms, how obstinate in removing truth from view; and, finally, how difficult, and often damaging, it is to uproot the entrenched roots of accepted opinions and plant new ones.