so astonishing a secret

NOTES

so astonishing a secret

Although the term sounds innocent at first reading, we may be reminded here of the "secret stores of knowledge" ("secrets of nature" in 1831) Victor found in Cornelius Agrippa (I:1:15) and perhaps also, as a point of contrast, of the emphasis shared by all modern scientific discourse on open inquiry and testing results of experimentation in a court of learned opinion.