Euclid's Elements

The study, therefore, of the Greek language, and in the same manner for the Latin, was no other than the drudgery business of a linguist, and the language thus obtained was no other than the means, as it were the tools, employed to obtain the learning the Greeks had.

It made no part of the learning itself, and was so distinct from it as to make it exceedingly probable that the persons who had studied Greek sufficiently to translate those works, such, for instance, as Euclid's Elements, did not understand any of the learning the works contained.

End of Part IX This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

But before I proceed to this examination, I will show wherein the Bible differs from all other ancient writings with respect to the nature of the evidence necessary to establish its authenticity.

And this is the more proper to be done because the advocates of the Bible, in their answers to the former part of the Age of Reason, undertake to say, and they put some stress thereon, that the authenticity of the Bible is as well established as that of any other ancient book, as if our belief of the one could become any rule for our belief of the other.

I know, however, but of one ancient book that authoritatively challenges universal consent and belief, and that is Euclid's Elements of Geometry.

And the reason is because it is a book of self-evident demonstration, entirely independent of its author, and of everything related to time, place, and circumstance.

The first is best told by Aubrey.

Being in a gentleman's library, Euclid's Elements lay open, and twas the forty-seventh element, Libri I.

He read the proposition.

By God, said he, this is impossible.

So the number one book sold in the world of all time is the Bible.

But Euclid's Elements is on the top tier of that list of being on there.

And it's mostly math proofs and such that we've used recently.

It's got tenure on basis of time.

Euclid's thing has been copied and sent to mathematicians all over.

Euclid's elements has just been in the history books for a long, long time.

Dude, I'm impressed you were able to say that word at all.

I still don't think I could.

And while yet I looked and looked, self-questioned what this freight which the newcomer carried through the waste could mean.

The Arab told me that the stone, to give it the language of the dream, was Euclid's Elements.

'And this,' said he, 'is something of more worth.' And at the word stretched forth the shell, so beautiful in shape, in color so resplendent, with command that I should hold it to my ear.

I did so and heard that instant in an unknown tongue, which yet I understood, articulate sounds, a loud prophetic blast of harmony, an ode in passion uttered, which foretold destruction to the children of the earth by deluge now at hand.

And while yet I looked and looked, self-questioned what this freight which the newcomer carried through the waste could mean.

The Arab told me that the stone, to give it the language of the dream, was Euclid's elements.

And this, said he, is something of more worth.

And at the word stretched forth the shell, so beautiful in shape, in color so resplendent, with command that I should hold it to my ear.

Monsieur le Pellier was no less surprised than the father of Pascal had been and told him that he did not think it fair to restrain such a mind further and to conceal this knowledge from him and that now he ought to be allowed to see the books without further restraint.

After this, his father gave him Euclid's Elements to study in his hours of recreation.

He read them and understood them entirely by himself without having any need of explanation.

And not only did he continue his studies in private, he also took part in certain conferences held in the house of Father Meserne, which formed the nucleus of the Academy of Sciences established in 1666, four years after the death of Pascal.

The study, therefore, of the Greek language, and in the same manner for the Latin, was no other than the drudgery business of a linguist, and the language thus obtained was no other than the means, as it were the tools, employed to obtain the learning the Greeks had.

It made no part of the learning itself, and was so distinct from it as to make it exceedingly probable that the persons who had studied Greek sufficiently to translate those works, such, for instance, as Euclid's Elements, did not understand any of the learning the works contained.

End of Part 9 This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

But before I proceed to this examination, I will show wherein the Bible differs from all other ancient writings with respect to the nature of the evidence necessary to establish its authenticity.

And this is the more proper to be done because the advocates of the Bible, in their answers to the former part of the Age of Reason, undertake to say, and they put some stress thereon, that the authenticity of the Bible is as well established as that of any other ancient book, as if our belief of the one could become any rule for our belief of the other.

I know, however, but of one ancient book that authoritatively challenges universal consent and belief, and that is Euclid's Elements of Geometry.

And the reason is because it is a book of self-evident demonstration, entirely independent of its author, and of everything related to time, place, and circumstance.