- GREEK AND ROMAN MATHEMATICS 49
Like the geometer who applies all his powers
To measure the circle, but does not find
By thinking the principle he needs,
Such was I, in this new vista.
I wished to see how the image came together
With the circle and how it could be divined there.
But my own wings could not have made the flight
Had not my mind been struck
By a flash in which his will came to me.
In this lofty vision I could do nothing.
But now turning my desire and will,
Like a wheel that is uniformly moved,
Was the love that moves the sun and the other stars.The quadrivium, from Boethius' Arithmetic. From left to right:
Music holding an instrument, Arithmetic doing a finger computa-
tion, Geometry studying a set of figures, Astrology holding a set
of charts for horoscopes. © Foto Marburg/Art Resource.