For The Things Of This World Cannot

In The Mathematics I Can Report No Deficience, Except That It Be That Men Do Not Sufficiently Understand The Excellent Use Of The Pure Mathematics, In That They Do Remedy And Cure Many Defects In The Wit And Faculties Intellectual. For If The Wit Be Too Dull, They Sharpen It; If Too Wandering, They Fix It; If Too Inherent In The Sense, They Abstract It.

Neglect Of Mathematics Work Injury To All Knowledge, Since He Who Is Ignorant Of It Cannot Know The Other Sciences Or Things Of This World. And What Is Worst, Those Who Are Thus Ignorant Are Unable To Perceive Their Own Ignorance, And So Do Not Seek A Remedy.

The Calendar Is Intolerable To All Wisdom, The Horror Of All Astronomy, And A Laughing Stock From A Mathematician's Point Of View.

As Regards Authority I So Proceed. Boetius Says In The Second Prologue To His Arithmetic, 'if An Inquirer Lacks The Four Parts Of Mathematics, He Has Very Little Ability To Discover Truth.' And Again, 'without This Theory No One Can Have A Correct Insight Into Truth.' And He Says Also, 'i Warn The Man Who Spurns These Paths Of Knowledge That He Cannot Philosophize Correctly.' And Again, 'it Is Clear That Whosoever Passes These By, Has Lost The Knowledge Of All Learning.'

Argument Is Conclusive, But It Does Not Remove Doubt.