Fontanares Senor, I respect the name which you have made; but I cannot accept your offer, because of the dangers attendant on my enterprise; I am risking my head in this work and yours is too precious to be exposed.
Don Ramon Do you think, senor, that you can afford to slight Don Ramon, the great scientific authority?
Quinola Don Ramon! The famous Don Ramon, who has expounded the causes of so many natural phenomena, which hitherto had been thought to happen without cause?
Don Ramon
The very man.
Quinola I am Fontanaresi, director of the arsenal of the Venetian Republic, and grandfather of our inventor. My son, you may have full confidence in Don Ramon; a man of his position can have no designs upon you; let us tell him everything.
Don Ramon (aside)
Ah! I am going to learn everything about the machine.
Fontanares (aside to Quinola)
What is all this about?
Quinola (aside to Fontanares) Let me give him a lesson in mathematics; it will do him no good, and us no harm. (To Don Ramon) Will you come here? (He points out the parts of the machine) All this is meaningless; for philosophers, the great thing—
Don Ramon
The great thing?
Quinola
Is the problem itself! You know the reason why clouds mount upwards?