• 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.