Necessary to this type of education, traditionally, seven arts or skills have been preserved and passed on through the ages. These are Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Music, and Astronomy. The first three, especially, can be considered tools of learning.  Dorothy Sayers describes them very well in her essay  ‘The Lost Tools of Learning’. The latter four were chosen partly because the same mathematical truths are found in each of them, but in different ways. Geometry contains mathematics in space, Music contains mathematics in time, Astronomy contains mathematics in space and time, and Arithmetic contains mathematics apart from space and time.

The first three are called the Trivium, and the latter four are called the Quadrivium. However, all seven of these arts are very effective at strengthening the mind’s ability to grasp unchanging truth. That is why all seven of these arts are called “via” or “ways”. They are all ways to philosophy, which is the love of wisdom. And philosophy - the love of wisdom - should be the goal of all education.

 
 
 
 
Part of The Gilbertine Institute