“Through many a long day you'll be taught
That what you once did without thinking,
As easy as if it were eating or drinking,
Must be done in order: one! two! three!
But truly, this though factory of ours
Is like some weaver's masterpiece:
One treadle stirs a thousand threads,
This way and that the shuttles whistle,
Threads flow invisibly, one ... Read morestroke
Ties a thousand knots .... The philosopher steps in
And proves to you it had to be so;
The first was so, the second was so,
And therefore the third and fourth were so.
If the first and second hadn't existed,
The third and fourth would never have existed.
And this is praised by every scholar,
But never a one becomes a weaver.
To know and describe a living thing
You first get rid of all its spirit:
Then the parts are all in the palm of your hand,
And all that you lack is the spirit that binds them!
Encheiresis naturae, chemists call it,
And fool themselves and never know it”