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X. Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations Index
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684.

  Truth the sun.
  falsehood a mask.
  innocence,
  malignity.

  Fire destroys falsehood,
  that is sophistry, and
  restores truth, driving out
  darkness.

  Fire may be represented as the destroy of
  all sophistry, and as the
  image and demonstration of truth;
  because it is light and drives
  out darkness which conceals
  all essences [or subtle things].

 322

p. 357

TRUTH.

  Fire destroys all sophistry, that is deceit;
  and maintains truth alone, that is gold.

  Truth at last cannot be hidden.
  Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is
  to no purpose before
  so great a judge.
  Falsehood puts on a mask.
  Nothing is hidden under the sun.

  Fire is to represent truth because it
  destroys all sophistry and lies; and the
  mask is for lying and falsehood
  which conceal truth.


Footnotes

356:322 : See Pl. LXIII. L. 1-8 are in the middle of the page; 1. 9-14 to the right below; 1. 15-22 below in the middle column. The rest of the text is below the sketches on the left. There are some other passages on this page relating to geometry.


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