"We were quite happy with Aristotle's cosmos. Personally, I preferred it. Fifty five crystal spheres geared to God's crankshaft is my idea of a satisfying universe. I can't think of anything more trivial than the speed of light. Quarks, quasars- big bangs, black holes - who gives a shit? How did you people con us out of all that status? All that money? And why are you so pleased with yourselves?"

The above quote by Bernard seems to once again somewhat strengthen the idea of different types of knowledge being seperate in the play Arcadia. While earlier, the difference was made apparent mostly in the cases of the difference between emotional/carnal knowledge and academic knowledge, this quote seems to treat mathematical or scientific knowledge and literature/self discovery in the same way. There is also a question raised of whether the first is just to satisfy our curiosity and go deeper into the field or has some further purpose.

"We were quite happy with Aristotle's cosmos. Personally, I preferred it. Fifty five crystal spheres geared to God's crankshaft is my idea of a satisfying universe. I can't think of anything more trivial than the speed of light. Quarks, quasars- big bangs, black holes - who gives a shit? How did you people con us out of all that status? All that money? And why are you so pleased with yourselves?"

The tone of the passage immediately gives the reader an idea of the frustration and the resentment that is being felt by Bernard. Having been born in a time where philosophy and analytical literature has taken somewhat of a back seat to science, the passage makes it very clear how Bernard believes that him and his peers were “conned out of all that status” and that the upholders of this new field had no reason to be “pleased with themselves”. It also pulls into sharp focus another binary that was present in Arcadia - namely the binary opposition between Science and Literature which is painfully obvious if the scenes that take place in the “present”.