ing.
Wherin, the people knew no farder, of Magnitudes vse, but in Plaines:
and the Philosophers, of them, had no feet hearers, or Scholers: farder
to disclose vnto, then of flat, plaine _Geometrie_. And though, these
Philosophers, knew of farder vse, and best vnderstode the etymologye of
the worde, yet this name _Geometria_, was of them applyed generally to
all sortes of Magnitudes: vnleast, otherwhile, of _Plato_, and
_Pythagoras_: When they would precisely declare their owne doctrine.
Then, was

[* Plato. 7. de Rep.]

* _Geometria_, with them, _Studium quod circa planum versatur_. But,
well you may perceiue by _Euclides Elementes_, that more ample is our
Science, then to measure Plaines: and nothyng lesse therin is tought (of
purpose) then how to measure Land. An other name, therfore, must nedes
be had, for our Mathematicall Science of Magnitudes: which regardeth
neither clod, nor turff: neither hill, nor dale: neither earth nor
heauen: but is absolute _Megethologia_: not creping on ground, and
dasseling the eye, with pole perche, rod or lyne: but "liftyng the hart
aboue the heauens, by inuisible lines, and

[->]

immortall beames meteth with the reflexions, of the light
incomprehensible: and so procureth Ioye, and perfection vnspeakable." Of
which true vse of our _Megethica_, or _Megethologia_, _Diuine Plato_
seemed to haue good taste, and iudgement: and (by the name of
_Geometrie_) so noted it: and warned his Scholers therof: as, in hys
seuenth _Dialog_, of the Common wealth, may euidently be sene. Where (in
Latin) thus it is: right well translated: _Profecto, nobis hoc non
negabunt, Quicun[que] vel paululum quid Geometriae gustarunt, quin haec
Scientia, contra, omnino se habeat, quam de ea loquuntur, qui in ipsa
versantur._ In English, thus. +_Verely_+ (sayth _Plato_) +_whosoeuer
haue, (but euen very litle) tasted of Geometrie, will not denye vnto vs,
this: but that this Science, is of an other condicion, quite contrary to
that, which they that are exercised in it, do speake of it._+ And there
it followeth, of our _Geometrie_, _Quod quaeritur cognoscendi illius
gratia, quod semper est, non & eius quod oritur quando[que] & interit.
Geometria, eius quod est semper, Cognitio est. Attollet igitur
(o Generose vir) ad Veritatem, animum: at[que] ita, ad Philosophandum
preparabit cogitationem, vt ad supera conuertamus: quae, nunc, contra
quam decet, ad inferiora deijcimus. &c. Quam maxime igitur praecipiendum