Circa le prime, che sono nobili e divine, ci tocca di avere minore conoscenza, giacchè pochissimi sono i fatti accertati dall’osservazione sensibile, a partire dai quali si possa condurre l’indagine su tali realtà, cioè su quanto aneliamo di sapere.
The former are excellent beyond compare and divine, but less accessible to knowledge. The evidence that might throw light on them, and on the problems which we long to solve respecting them, is furnished but scantily by sensation.
No entanto, sucede-nos que, a respeito daquelas primeiras, que são valiosas e divinas, poucos estudos nos são possíveis (pois com relação àquilo a partir de que poder-se-ia investigar a respeito delas, e com respeito àquilo que ansiamos conhecer, são inteiramente escassos os fatos manifestos conforme a sensação),
Quelque admirables et quelque divines que soient les choses impérissables, nos observations se trouvent, en ce qui les regarde, être bien incomplètes. Pour elles, nos sens nous révèlent excessivement peu de choses qui puissent nous les faire connaître, et répondre à notre ardent désir de les comprendre.
It has come about that in relation to the former, which possess value—indeed divinity—the studies we can make are less, because both the starting-points of the inquiry and the things we long to know about, present extremely few appearances to observation.
It so happens that about the former, although they are divine and honorable, we have very few observations (since the things we can investigate about them and the things we can know about them that are apparent to sensation are really very few), while about the latter, those things that are ephemeral (i.e., plants and animals) we have plenty of information for our understanding, since we live along side them
But it happens that we have less opportunity to observe the former, though they are valuable and divine, because altogether few aspects of them, through which someone might investigate them and about which we desire to know, are apparent to our sense faculties.
The latter are of the highest worth and are divine, but our opportunities for the study of them are somewhat scanty, since there is but little evidence available to our senses to enable us to consider them and all the things that we long to know about.
The former are excellent beyond compare and divine, but less accessible to knowledge. The evidence that might throw light on them, and on the problems which we long to solve respecting them, is furnished but scantily by sensation;
Yet it has turned out that our studies of the former, though they are valuable and divine, are fewer (for as regards both those things on the basis of which one would examine them and those things about them which we long to know, the perceptual phenomena are altogether few).
Und es hat sich ergeben, dass uns über jene erstgenannten, die wertvoll sind und göttlich, weniger Einsichten zur Verfügung stehen – denn sowohl hinsichtlich der Ausgangspunkte, von denen her man sie untersuchen könnte, als auch hinsichtlich dessen, was wir über sie zu wissen wünschen, gibt es nur wenig, das aufgrund der Wahrnehmung deutlich ist.«
praesens antiquitas 