“As 'tis in an Arch, where each single stone, which if sever'd from the rest would be perhaps defenceless, is sufficiently secur'd by the solidity and entireness of the whole Fabrick of which it is a part …. [T]hey mutually strengthen and support each other.” —Themistius, the Aristotelian, argues that correct knowledge of Natural Philosophy is constructed stone by stone, through logical reasoning; from "The Sceptical Chymist" by Robert Boyle.
Is this the Owl-Chymist’s madness? That he would deny alchymical devotion to experiment? What trauma turns one reactionary?