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The 1836 Solemn Act of the Warsaw Gymnasium

Rodzimy Archive July 29, 1836

SOLEMN ACT

OF THE CONCLUSION OF THE ANNUAL COURSE OF STUDIES AT THE WARSAW GYMNASIUM

ON LESZNO STREET

to be held on July 29, 1836

IN THE GREAT HALL OF KAZIMIERZOWSKI PALACE,

TO WHICH

GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES

AS WELL AS

PARENTS AND GUARDIANS OF THE STUDYING YOUTH

JAN NEP. KARWOWSKI

DIRECTOR OF THE SAID GYMNASIUM

INVITES.

IN WARSAW,

AT THE PRINTING HOUSE OF JÓZEF WĘCKI

ON SENATORSKA STREET No. 463.

1836.

With permission of the Government Censorship

Introduction

Our Institute, simultaneously with the announcement of the School Statute most graciously granted to us by HIS MOST SERENE MAJESTY, was placed among the country’s Gymnasiums, and subsequently developed gradually over two years. In the past school year, thanks to the careful supervision of the Supreme Magistracy placed over education, it was completed through the opening of Class VIII and the provision of means for the proper instruction of all subjects prescribed for Gymnasiums. Today’s ceremony concluding the annual course of studies is therefore all the more important for public education, all the more pleasing to us, as we have the pleasure of presenting for the first time a considerable group of young men of fine promise, who owe their complete preparation to our Gymnasium. This rapid elevation of one of the highest scientific Institutes in the country, so many expenditures made to support its activities, such careful governmental supervision extended over it—these are undeniable proofs of the graciousness of THE MOST BENEFICENT OF MONARCHS, whose profound wisdom simultaneously provides for the needs of present and future generations. Our voice is too weak to worthily express our homage of admiration and gratitude; but thousands of families who find their happiness in the spread of enlightenment, this numerous youth being shaped into upright citizens and faithful servants of the Throne, will pass on to their successors as a heritage their unwavering attachment and steadfast loyalty to the MONARCH who so concerns himself with the happiness of the peoples under HIS scepter.

On the Supervision of the Director General

We cannot in this place pass over in silence how much we owe to the Head of National Education, His Excellency Lieutenant-General GOŁOWIN, DIRECTOR General, who with truly Fatherly solicitude strives for improvements that promise ever more brilliant success for our Schools. At the beginning of the past school year, highly important changes occurred regarding the instruction and grading of subjects. Mathematical and natural sciences, as needed, were introduced into certain classes and divisions which had previously lacked them; the German and French languages, as well as legal studies, became common subjects for both divisions—philological and technical—in the three upper classes. These and other minor changes, the need for which experience indicated, will undoubtedly contribute to the more certain achievement of the goal intended by the School Statute.

Constantly keeping in mind, His Excellency the Director General, the scientific education of youth, he simultaneously watches unceasingly over the execution of regulations relating to the conduct of students both in school and outside school. This part of public education is of great importance, and its neglect has always brought the saddest consequences. The willing execution of all orders of this kind, even such as someone judging superficially might consider less necessary, greatly influences the moral formation of a young man. And indeed, what can be more salutary than this habituation from early years to order, to neatness, to paying careful attention to oneself and one’s duties? It would be superfluous to dwell on this longer: experience, though brief, presents results so obvious that any prejudice, if there were any, would necessarily appear ridiculous in the eyes of sensible people.

Practical Field Exercises

Proceeding in the spirit of the regulations mentioned here, we endeavored to meet the expectations of the beneficent Government and the Parents of the youth entrusted to our care. And indeed, the courses of study in all classes were delivered in their proper scope, with due regard maintained for practical application whenever the nature of the subject required it. Besides what was explained to our students within the Institute, with the help of the chemical laboratory and other scientific collections to support theory, we did not neglect to take advantage of other opportunities to demonstrate the practical use of acquired knowledge. Thus:

Students of Class III acquired in the field the skill of conducting straight, perpendicular, and parallel lines, and in using the chain and square; in doing so, they solved some of the simplest problems of surveying. Finally, they drew up a plan of the farm buildings of one of the nearby colonies, using only the plane table.

Class IV carried out the survey and prepared a plan of the entire Orlówek colony, using in turn the plane table, compass, and protractor, whereby the opportunity arose to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of these instruments, to learn the differences in methods of conducting surveys with different instruments, and to convince themselves of the superiority of one instrument over another in particular cases which the terrain presents.

Students of Class V made a survey of the manor called Włochy.

Students of Class VI solved more important problems on the ground, using methods provided by plane trigonometry.

Students of Class VII technical drew up a plan of the village of Służew using the plane table and compass, and also leveled the hill adjacent to that village. Students of the same class went on botanical excursions to nearby areas and prepared systematic collections of plants, that is, Herbariums.

Visits to Industrial Establishments

Class VIII technical, completing in the last quarter the prescribed course of the entire technology curriculum, visited in accordance with the instructions under the supervision of the proper Professor, the greater part of the most notable industrial establishments in Warsaw; whereby the theoretical principles of this science imparted to the students gained realization in practical images. The establishments which the class had the opportunity to learn about, with the gracious permission of their owners, are as follows:

The chemical products factory of Messrs. Kwilecki, Hirschman, and Kijewski, in which the students learned the manufacture of oleic and Nordhausen sulfuric acid, the obtaining of iron and copper sulfates, lead acetate, etc.
The porter brewery of Messrs. Wasilewski and Sommer, which also produces English ale.
The glove factory in Marymont of Mr. Gross, in which all tawing, chamois-making, dyeing and finishing operations on skins were observed, from their raw state to the final intended product.
The mechanical workshops of Mr. Perks. There they viewed furnaces for melting raw material, molds for casting, as well as extensive lathes and workshops powered by steam.
The carpet factory of Mr. Gejsmer. In it the students had the opportunity to observe the carding of wool, ordinary weaving looms, Jacquard looms for patterns, and methods of preparing cardboard links for the chain of these latter looms.
The wallpaper and rubber products factory of Messrs. Spoerlin, Rahn, and Wertheim. There students were shown the making by steam of extracts from dyeing surrogates, presses and forms for printing paper, with which operations were carried out; and many similar items relating to the manufacture of wallpapers, silk materials impregnated with rubber, oilcloth, etc.
The distillery in Wawrzyszew, in which students could gain a clear practical understanding of the main apparatus and operations of this branch of rural industry.
The tannery of Mr. Temler, in which there was opportunity to observe the entire red-tanning process, such as: tanning of sole leather, upper leather, moroccos, their dyeing and finishing.
The Government Mint. Having gained admission to it with permission of higher authority, the class found in operation almost all operations, from the melting of metal to the final processing.
Finally, the cloth factory of Mr. Frankl, which in its complete ramification presented to the students a full picture of cloth-making.

The Solemn Act will be held in the following order

On the 29th of this month, after hearing Holy Mass, the Teaching Assembly and students of the Gymnasium will come to the great hall of Kazimierzowski Palace.

At 10:30 the Director of the Gymnasium will open the Solemn Act, after which other members of the Teaching Assembly will proceed to read their own writings:

Inspector of the Gymnasium, Dionysius Lanckoroński: On the Influence of History Teaching on Religious and Moral Education.
Professor of Russian Literature, Sergei Pankratiev: A View of the State of Russian Literature in the 18th Century and at the Beginning of the 19th Century.
Teacher of German, Józef Pilz: Kurzer Entwurf einiger Grundsaetze zur Erlernung der deutschen Sprache (Brief Outline of Some Principles for Learning the German Language).

After which the students will come forward with readings of their own writings in various languages and with recitation.

Finally, the Inspector will read the list of students deserving promotion to higher classes, and the Director the first and last names of students deserving Awards and Letters of Commendation, which will be distributed by His Excellency the Director General, Presiding in the Government Commission of Internal Affairs, Ecclesiastical Affairs, and Public Enlightenment.

The same His Excellency the Director General will distribute certificates of completion of the entire course of studies to students of Class VIII leaving the Gymnasium.

After the Solemn Act has thus been completed, the students under the leadership of the Director and Teachers will proceed to the Church of the Visitation Sisters, to offer prayers of thanksgiving to the LORD OF HOSTS for the successfully completed school year.

SURNAMES AND FIRST NAMES OF STUDENTS

deserving Awards and Letters of Commendation for exemplary obedience, model moral conduct, diligence, and industriousness.

A. GENERAL AWARDS

FROM CLASS I

Fiszer Augustyn
Lilpop Ludwik
Daniewski Karol

FROM CLASS II

Szymański Michał
Lilpop Aloizy
Lebiedziński Antoni

FROM CLASS III

Trojanowski Edward
Meyer Ludwik
Kozerski Jan

FROM CLASS IV

Kosiński Dominik
Paschalski Józefat
Witowski Antoni

FROM CLASS V

Kozłowski Leon
Zakrzewski Walenty
Trojanowski Alexander

FROM CLASS VI — Philological Division

Grzankowski Jan
Bartoszewicz Julian

FROM CLASS VI — Technical Division

Grabowski Włodzimierz
Orłowski Jan

FROM CLASS VII — Philological Division

Potocki Adolf

FROM CLASS VII — Technical Division

Gliński Jakób

FROM CLASS VIII — Philological Division

Olszewski Michał
Choromański Seweryn
Heinrich Teodor

FROM CLASS VIII — Technical Division

Kamieński Ignacy

B. SPECIAL AWARDS

for distinguished progress in the Russian language

FROM CLASS I

Fiszer Augustyn

FROM CLASS II

Lilpop Aloizy

FROM CLASS III

Trojanowski Edward

FROM CLASS IV

Rogalski Władysław 2nd

FROM CLASS V

Kozłowski Leon

FROM CLASS VI — Philological Division

Meyer Ewaryst

FROM CLASS VI — Technical Division

Grabowski Włodzimierz

FROM CLASS VII — Philological Division

Potocki Adolf

FROM CLASS VII — Technical Division

Gliński Jakób

FROM CLASS VIII — Philological Division

Olszewski Michał

FROM CLASS VIII — Technical Division

Rożyński Włodzimierz

C. LETTERS OF COMMENDATION

FROM CLASS I

Molatyński Leon
Grabowski Ludwik
Dąbrowski Paulin
Rutkowski Lucjan
Smirnow Mikołaj
Głowacki Walery
Tunoszeński Bazyli

FROM CLASS II

Wyczechowski Józef
Rutkowski Ludwik
Dietrich Karol
Łazowski Juliusz
Winnicki Antoni
Błeszyński Władysław

FROM CLASS III

Szumowski Florjan
Ehrlich Natan
Iwanicki Felix
Wolski Włodzimierz
Hauke Ludwik
Krzywicki Teodozy
Oppenheim Samuel

FROM CLASS IV

Dietrich Józef
Gliński Stanisław
Gniazdowski Damian
Laskowski Józef
Hirschfeld Ludwik
Morzkowski Michał

FROM CLASS V

Czarkowski Edward
Dembowski Franciszek
Młodecki Paweł
Stypułkowski Teofil
Cymerman Antoni
Berendt Alexander

FROM CLASS VI — Philological Division

Meyer Ewaryst
Wichert Jan
Kotowicz Stanisław

FROM CLASS VI — Technical Division

Sztembarth Prot
Srzedziński Lucyan

FROM CLASS VII — Philological Division

Walewski Władysław
Kleczkowski Karol

FROM CLASS VII — Technical Division

Dąbrowolski Wincenty
Schoen Teodor

FROM CLASS VIII — Philological Division

Zalewski Stanisław
Cichocki Jan
Barchewitz Robert

FROM CLASS VIII — Technical Division

Wentzl Adolf
Kolnarski Ludwik

SURNAMES AND FIRST NAMES OF CLASS VIII STUDENTS

receiving Certificates for completed gymnasium studies

From the Philological Division

Barchewitz Robert
Choromański Seweryn
Cichocki Jan
Filipecki Felix
Gniazdowski Marcin
Gzowski Gerwazy
Hauke Alfred
Heinrich Teodor
Olszewski Michał
Ossowski Adam
Wojde Jan
Zalewski Stanisław

From the Technical Division

Chmielewski Ignacy
Jankowski Maxymilian
Jeziorański Felix
Kamieński Ignacy
Kolnarski Ludwik
Rożyński Włodzimierz
Schütz Adolf
Szaniawski Alexander
Wentzl Adolf

Notices

regarding the registration of students for the next school year 1836/37

This registration will begin on September 15 of this year and will last until the 30th of the same month inclusive, daily from 9:30 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon; except for feast days.

For receiving former students and collecting fees from them, the days of September 15, 16, 17, 19, and 20 are designated. Those newly arriving at the Gymnasium, whether from other schools or from private education, may on those same days apply provisionally, to secure for themselves priority in admission; but only after passing an examination on September 21 and on following days will they be enrolled in the classes for which they prove qualified, if these do not yet comprise the designated number of students.

From taking this examination are exempt only students coming from the fourth class of district schools, who by virtue of the decree of the High Government Commission of Internal Affairs, Ecclesiastical Affairs, and Public Enlightenment dated May 14/26 of this year No. 2349/2347, on the strength of certificates alone from completed studies in those schools, will be admitted to the fifth gymnasium class. All others are obliged before the examination to submit certificates received from that school, or from that private scientific institute, from which they are transferring to the Gymnasium; and if they received home education, credible certificates from persons who were employed for such.

Before being entered in the registration book, whoever was a student here in the past school year must show his grade report from the last quarter of that year, with the personal signature of the person principally in charge of him at home. And each in particular, both former and new student, should:

be presented by the person under whose domestic authority he remains, and who vouches for his supervision outside school;
appear in a uniform prepared according to the designated forms;
submit necessarily a birth certificate, as well as a certificate of received smallpox vaccination;

then, immediately in the first days after entering school:

show in proper order all books prescribed for the appropriate class, as well as necessary notebooks and other school things; and at the same time submit a list of all books and writings in his possession in two copies, of which one, approved by the Inspector of the Gymnasium, will be returned, and the other will remain in gymnasium keeping. To this list, books and notebooks arriving later are to be added with the knowledge of the said Inspector.

Persons wishing to maintain gymnasium students in lodgings must be provided with appropriate official permission for this, and present it first of all. The same reservation extends equally to tutors. And of every change during the year, whether regarding the placement of a student in different lodgings, or regarding the hiring of a different tutor for him, the school authority must be immediately notified. The same is to be understood generally of changes of place of residence.

Parents or guardians who are late for any reason in applying for registration will have only themselves to blame if their sons or wards cannot be accepted because places are already taken.

Finally, it is mentioned that since even during vacation certain hours should be devoted to scholarly work, it will therefore be advantageous for students about to enter the sixth class that their domestic superiors decide early whether they are to attend the philological or technical division, to which they will direct their preparatory studies.

DISSERTATION OF THE PROFESSOR OF NATURAL SCIENCES ANTONI WAGA

On Errors Against the Natural Sciences in the Works of Our Poets

All sciences, said Cicero, are joined by some common bond, some kinship. And although today it is impossible to learn everything in order to be proficient in everything, one cannot however be proficient in anything if one does not to some degree learn everything. When young devotees of learning, preparing themselves to be learned men, reach the final rung of public instruction, there awakens in their soul a stronger attraction to the subject in which they can excel. But these impulses too, which aim at paying homage to reason, must be subjected to the reins of reason. For to pore over acquiring one scientific subject while neglecting others is not to enlighten but to limit the mind.

Whoever has ever had a part in public teaching of youth has observed that the greatest obstacle to the complete enlightenment of a young man is his developing talent. It prematurely grants to his soul those rights to significance which only a long series of merits could scarcely achieve, and these malicious whispers of inborn abilities draw that ruinous fault which we call conceit. But less is the damage when a young virtuoso, having later become a notable musical artist, hears for the first time that besides Mozarts and Haydns, there were in the world Newton and Kepler, and far less when the universally admired buffoon is scarcely able to recall by name only those sciences which they tried to impart to him in schools; but incalculable is the damage when a young versifier neglects to acquire that knowledge which will prove essential for him at a time when he might succeed in inscribing his name in the ranks of notable poets.

From such a cause no doubt arise the errors which we have occasion to find in important works, and often the foremost in our literature. I shall pass over orators, I shall pass over all theorists, I shall leave only poets, and I shall limit myself to citing a few of their mistakes in the natural sciences, persisting all the more strongly in my resolution that to no one less than a poet can ignorance of the laws of nature be forgiven.

On the Pelican and Swan

When a poet, singing of the devotion of parents to children, mentions the pelican, or, painting the pleasantness of voice, compares it to the songs of the swan, I shall not reproach him for not knowing natural history. For although we know that the pelican feeds its young only with fish, and the swan never sings, the fables about the tearing of the breast of the first, and about the pre-death songs of the second, are so ancient and widespread that not to have the right to resort to them would be such a limitation for the poet as it would be a shame for the naturalist not to know of them.

On Feliński’s Errors

But it is hard to forgive the ignorance of science in the Translator of Delille’s Man of the Fields, when in the third canto of this poem, enumerating some objects composing the cabinet of a lover of natural history, he says of the tapeworm:

… . and the murderer worm That coils itself in living ribbons around our heart.

True that the intestines lie not very far from the heart, but the recollection that the common people are generally led astray by the superstition that the tapeworm resides around the heart, and even sucks it, leads also to the question whether Feliński too did not share the vulgar opinion.

If Feliński had known the turtle, instead of:

He who is covered with a conch bent into a vault

he would have preferred to say bone, which would even have been more advantageous for poetry, for an animal covered with a conch is no rarity among other animals, and covering the turtle with a conch, we make it by such expression a species of snail, with which it has no similarity.

On the Hydra and Other Errors

A naturalist painting Africa should not, alongside animals proper to that part of the world, mention hydras:

Let the dreadful hydra plow them with its long coils

for the hydra never existed, and if it existed ideally, it was in the mind of Greek poets, therefore not in Africa and cannot in any way contribute to completing the picture of that part of the world.

On the Heifer

To him who seemed not to write any word before considering it grammatically and etymologically and from various other points of view, how can one forgive the improper use of the word heifer in the verses:

Here the heifer wading in the flowery pasture, Fills its hanging udder with the sweet juice of herbs, While its playful offspring frolics at its side.

On the Eyes of Insects

In that beautiful apostrophe to insects in the third canto:

You scattered in clouds across the whole world etc.

what erroneous and incomprehensible an idea he gives of the eyes of insects!

Eyes which nature so wonderfully shapes, These scattered on you in microscopes, and others That like astronomical glasses extend long.

Feliński imagined the eyes of insects as some instruments capable of extending and assuming a long shape, when precisely among the exclusive characteristics of insects are eyes completely immobile.

On the Kraken and Sepia

In the note to the Polish Man of the Fields of Delille on page 405, where there is mention of whales: “Among the whales, the largest is the kraken, and after it the sepia octopedia.” How amusing this explanation is for those who know the animals mentioned here! It was imagined at the beginning of the last century that from the depths of that expanse of sea which extends between England and Norway, there sometimes rises to the surface a living island, which was called the kraken. The kraken therefore is a product of the exuberant imagination of maritime travelers, and never existed. Sepia octopodia is a marine animal closest in nature to snails.

On Turkeys and Meleagrids

In the note on birds into which were changed the sisters of Meleager, the author of the commentary says: “These birds the Greeks and Romans called Meleagrids. Looking at their description given by Athenaeus, one cannot doubt that they are turkeys.” Here is important news for the zoologist, who was certain until now that turkeys were known neither to Greeks nor Romans. Who among the learned should not know that the Greeks and Romans under the name of Meleagrids understood guinea fowl or pearl hens from Numidia and that turkeys, originating from America, were not known until after the discovery of that part of the world?

On the Kingfisher

In the note describing the kingfisher, the commentator adds that “for seven days before its breeding and for seven days after, complete calm prevails on the sea, especially the Sicilian”; he thus accepts as actual truth what belonged only to the superstitions of the common people of the time. The ancients believed that its nest floats freely on the sea, and during the hatching of the chicks, around the solstice, the sea for several days was calm from storms and winds.

On the Greatness of Ancient Poets

The great poets of antiquity observed nature so closely, knew it in even its smallest details, that the imagination of the reader of their works often loses its strength to perceive that it is imagination. Yes, I truly walk with the poet who enchants me, through those spaces of fields and meadows trodden by the feet of heavenly beings; with my own eyes I look at those herds wandering across them, at those living birds, at those rustling trees; even small plants are distinct in this picture: I see their leaves, their flowers.

On the Hyacinth and Larkspur

When Ovid paints for us in the tenth book the transformation of Hyacinthus into a flower and the similar transformation of Ajax son of Telamon in the thirteenth book, he knows that on a certain flower are inscribed as it were those three letters AIA, and immediately he takes those aia there as the sound of Apollo’s grief and sorrow, here as the beginning of Ajax’s name. How necessary this becomes for his fiction! We see this flower in every garden of ours and read on it those AIA remembering Ovid’s story. It is the commonly known garden larkspur, which for that mark made famous by the memories of Ovid and Virgil, Linnaeus even named botanically Delphinium ajacis.

On Errors in Translating the Woodpecker and Bat

The translator sometimes takes the word penna for wings where it means feathers. Thus in the description of the woodpecker:

Purpureum chlamydis pennae traxere colorem

he translates:

From the scarlet cloak the wing takes its color.

when the woodpecker does have red feathers, but not in its wings. Conversely, taking penna for feathers, in the verse

… tenuique induxit brachia penna.

he commits an even greater error against natural history, for he attributes feathers to bats, which they do not have:

And quite slender feathers (instead of delicate membranes) covered their limbs.

On the Ilex Tree

The type of tree known by the name ilex, in Kluk called holly oak, in southern Europe as common as oaks and pines among us, therefore often mentioned by Roman poets, is usually replaced by Polish translators with fir. I would not agree to this with Kotiużyński, who translates:

And a swarm of bees usually sits in hollowed hives, And in a rotten fir establishes its home.

for the life of a fir usually ends with general desiccation, and there are no firs so rotten that bees could settle in them.

On Flowers and Insects Among Polish Poets

If in the times when Naruszewicz wrote his ode to Lubomirska, plant physiology had been as well known among us as poetry, then these words of his panegyric:

Under the wise eye of grandfather and noble grandmother, As under palm and tall cedar Having pleasant shade, luxuriant flowers grow, You surpass many in wisdom beyond your years.

would rather have been considered satire, for shade is not pleasant for flowers, which on the contrary grow most wretchedly under trees, and finally die miserably.

On the Snake and Bee

The same ignorance of the proper order of things marks the following cantata, which Krasicki translated from Metastasio:

Both snake and little bee Without alternation Suck the same herbs, Suck the same flowers. Equal in their prey, They differ in composition, In the bee it is sweetness, In the snake it is venom.

for no species of snake needs either honey or plants for food.

On the Fable of the Viper

Therefore Niemcewicz in his essay on fables presents as a model this little fable of Babrius translated by Minasowicz:

Long did the plowman carry behind his breast a frozen viper, When later from warmth it slowly revives, With its sting it kills the giver of its life: Thus wickedness always repays kindness.

Whoever cares only about verse and moral finds everything in this fable, and will not think about this: that if this viper had frozen, it would not have revived from warmth, that the viper in winter only becomes torpid for a time, and therefore since it does not die, it also does not revive.

On the Bear in Winter

Hence, there is no reality in this picture of a bear taken from the description of winter by Saint-Lambert, and translated by Wyszkowski:

The bear, accustomed to the harsh time of year, With slow step traverses inaccessible forests: Or in a dark cave, bristling with frost Bears hunger and suffering with unmoved courage.

For torpid, it does not bear hunger; insensible, it does not suffer.

On Lizards and Vipers

Whoever knows the nature of animals bears displeasure without feeling any impressions when the poet, to terrify with the ferocity of venom, brings onto the scene lizards or slow worms. For neither the slow worm nor any lizard has venom: the first cannot even bite. If the lizard has anything frightening, it is perhaps only in its name, for it itself is a pleasant animal, gentle, having a cheerful look, fond of man and by no means harmful.

On the Meaning of Being Learned

Therefore, what is a learned man? Not he who only knows how to rhyme beautifully, who solves the most intricate mathematical problems, who accurately explains every Latin verse, who can properly name every plant. No, there is no learned man among them. A learned man is one who in addition to his own science has an accurate idea of the entire existing state of human knowledge. We often have poets, philologists, mathematicians, naturalists, but we rarely have learned men. To be a poet, talent for poetry is enough; to become a naturalist, it is enough to love one’s subject; but to rightly receive the name of a learned man, besides talents and inclination, the addition of work is necessary.

On Mickiewicz’s Anachronism

I cannot pass over in silence the anachronism of the notable poet. In Wallenrod, the companion of the hero, Halban, sings:

The Wilia in the lovely Kaunas valley Flows amid tulips and narcissuses.

This Halban, as the author himself states in the notes, died in 1394, when the first tulip was not brought from Cappadocia to Europe by Gesner until 1559.

On the Knowledge of Nature Among the Ancients

I see no reason to doubt that the flower which today is botanically called Aster amellus is the same one which Virgil describes under the name amello:

Aureus ipse, sed in foliis, quae plurima circum Funduntur, violae sublucet purpura nigrae.

for I see in these words that it is a flower which today’s botanists call composite, that it has a yellow center and around it numerous sapphire-colored rays.

Why does Milton know the nature of beings so well that from his collection of it, like a painter of light, he can use it to create beings still unknown on earth, which (as was said of him) if they existed, would be such as Milton paints them? Let us read diligently the ancient poets, let us read Tasso, Petrarch, Pope, etc.—they will prove to be the best teachers of natural history.

Conclusion

And among us, assiduous imitators of their art, where is the Lucretius who knew the elephant so well as to call it anguimanus elephas? Who without knowing of our Lyonnets, Swammerdams, Rösels, was already directing his attention to the transformation of a tiny insect, or without yet having our microscopes, was already observing creatures invisible to the eye?

We have in our literature translations of ancient poets full of merit, and although not of all, there is nevertheless hope that we may in the future possess the rest as well. We have many beautiful original works of our muse. It is pleasant to look through and value these treasures of our mother tongue. But why amid priding ourselves on beauties must we be annoyed that these works worthy of posterity will not present to it the contemporary state of skills and sciences in as faithful an image as the poetry of the Romans and Greeks presents them to us?

This ineptitude so marks some of our works that they seem as if they did not belong to the epoch in which they were written. For us all this seems a trifle, if only the rhyme flows smoothly. Amid this limitation, we nevertheless often mention immortality, luring ourselves with its vision, while striving that our works should not even begin to live.