"We were quite happy with Aristotle's cosmos. Personally, I preferred it.

Fifty five crystal

spheres geared to od's cran!shaft is my idea of a satisfying universe. I can't thin! of
anything more trivial than the speed of light. "uar!s, quasars# $ig $angs, $lac! holes #
who gives a shit% &ow did you people con us out of all that status% All that money% And
why are you so pleased with yourselves%"
'he a$ove quote $y (ernard seems to once again somewhat strengthen the idea of
different types of !nowledge $eing seperate in the play Arcadia. While earlier, the
difference was made apparent mostly in the cases of the difference $etween
emotional)carnal !nowledge and academic !nowledge, this quote seems to treat
mathematical or scientific !nowledge and literature)self discovery in the same way. 'here
is also a question raised of whether the first is *ust to satisfy our curiosity and go deeper
into the field or has some further purpose.
"We were quite happy with Aristotle's cosmos. Personally, I preferred it. Fifty five crystal
spheres geared to od's cran!shaft is my idea of a satisfying universe. I can't thin! of
anything more trivial than the speed of light. "uar!s, quasars# $ig $angs, $lac! holes #
who gives a shit% &ow did you people con us out of all that status% All that money% And
why are you so pleased with yourselves%"
'he tone of the passage immediately gives the reader an idea of the frustration and the
resentment that is $eing felt $y (ernard. &aving $een $orn in a time where philosophy
and analytical literature has ta!en somewhat of a $ac! seat to science, the passage ma!es
it very clear how (ernard $elieves that him and his peers were +conned out of all that
status, and that the upholders of this new field had no reason to $e +pleased with
themselves,. It also pulls into sharp focus another $inary that was present in Arcadia #
namely the $inary opposition $etween -cience and .iterature which is painfully o$vious
if the scenes that ta!e place in the +present,.