Mathematics Is The Gate And

Argument Is Conclusive, But It Does Not Remove Doubt.

For If Any Man Who Never Saw Fire Proved By Satisfactory Arguments That Fire Burns. His Hearer's Mind Would Never Be Satisfied, Nor Would He Avoid The Fire Until He Put His Hand In It That He Might Learn By Experiment What Argument Taught.

But Concerning Vision Alone Is A Separate Science Formed Among Philosophers, Namely, Optics, And Not Concerning Any Other Sense ... It Is Possible That Some Other Science May Be More Useful, But No Other Science Has So Much Sweetness And Beauty Of Utility. Therefore It Is The Flower Of The Whole Of Philosophy And Through It, And Not Without It, Can The Other Sciences Be Known.

All Sciences Are Connected; They Lend Each Other Material Aid As Parts Of One Great Whole, Each Doing Its Own Work, Not For Itself Alone, But For The Other Parts; As The Eye Guides The Body And The Foot Sustains It And Leads It From Place To Place.

There Are Four Great Sciences, Without Which The Other Sciences Cannot Be Known Nor A Knowledge Of Things Secured ... Of These Sciences The Gate And Key Is Mathematics ... He Who Is Ignorant Of This [mathematics] Cannot Know The Other Sciences Nor The Affairs Of This World.