Wisdom

Wittgenstein once remarked, "That Newtonian mechanics can be used to describe the world tells nothing about the world. Nevertheless it tells us something: that it can be used to describe the world in the way in which we do in fact use it."

I don't personally know any Newtonian mechanics, although I have friends who are perfectly capable mechanics. It strikes me, in particular, however that many scientists fail to pay sufficient homage to the common-sense realities of life - that people can be stupid, or venal, or careless, or insensitive; that science is an excellent way of making a particularly rigorous but not necessarily useful construct for dealing with life; that we are all in charge of reality by virtue of interpreting it however we want.

But in this House of the Wyvern, my dear apprentices, you must first learn to measure, to count, to recount, and to account.

I leave you with a quote from the ancient canon of Moses, the great thaumaturge of the Hebrews. The Second Book of Law says, in chapter 25, verse 15, "You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you." And that is the beginning of practical alchemy.