45. King Theodoric to Boetius, Vir Illustris and Patrician.

The water-clock and sundial destined for the Burgundian King.

'It is important to oblige our royal neighbours even in trifles, for none can tell what great matters may be aided thereby. Often what arms cannot obtain the offices of kindness bring to pass. Thus let even our unbending be for the benefit of the Republic. For our object in seeking pleasure is that we may thereby discharge the serious duties of life.

'The Lord of the Burgundians has earnestly requested that we would send him a clock which is regulated by water flowing under a modulus, and one which is marked by embracing the illumination of the immense sun[245].'

[I transcribe, and do not attempt to translate, the further description of the two machines, the order of which is now changed.]

'Primum sit, ubi stylus diei index, per umbram exiguam horas consuevit ostendere. Radius itaque immobilis, et parvus, peragens quod tam miranda magnitudo solis discurrit, et fugam solis aequiparat quod modum semper ignorat. [This must be the sundial.] Inviderent talibus, si astra sentirent: et meatum suum fortasse deflecterent, ne tali ludibrio subjacerent. Ubi est illud horarum de lumine venientium singulare miraculum, si has et umbra demonstrat? Ubi praedicabilis indefecta roratio, si hoc et metalla peragunt, quae situ perpetuo continentur? O artis inaestimabilis virtus quae dum se dicit ludere, naturae praevalet secreta vulgare.

'Secundum sit [the clepsydra] ubi praeter solis radios hora dignoscitur, noctes in partes dividens: quod ut nihil deberet astris, rationem coeli ad aquarum potius fluenta convertit, quorum motibus ostendit, quod coelum volvitur; et audaci praesumptione concepta, ars elementis confert quod originis conditio denegavit.'

'It will be a great gain to us that the Burgundians should daily look upon something sent by us which will appear to them little short of miraculous. Exert yourself therefore, oh Boetius, to get this thing put in hand. You have thoroughly imbued yourself with Greek philosophy[246]. You have translated Pythagoras the musician, Ptolemy the astronomer, Nicomachus the arithmetician, Euclid the geometer, Plato the theologian, Aristotle the logician, and have given back the mechanician Archimedes to his own Sicilian countrymen (who now speak Latin). You know the whole science of Mathematics, and the marvels wrought thereby. A machine [perhaps something like a modern orrery] has been made to exhibit the courses of the planets and the causes of eclipses. What a wonderful art is Mechanics! The mechanician, if we may say so, is almost Nature's comrade, opening her secrets, changing her manifestations, sporting with miracles, feigning so beautifully, that what we know to be an illusion is accepted by us as truth.'