Hobbes Conversion to Science

He was 40 yeares old before he looked on geometry; which happened accidentally. Being in a gentleman's library, Euclid's Elements lay open, and 'twas the 47 El. libri I. He read the proposition. 'By G—,' sayd he, (He would now and then sweare, by way of emphasis) 'By G—,' sayd he, 'this is impossible!' So he reads the demonstration of it, which re¬ ferred him back to such a proposition; which proposition he read. That referred him back to another, which he also read. Et sic deinceps, that at ...