consiste nel non perdere mai di vista l’importanza della sapienza metafisica.2 Maritain knows also that science without sapientia [sapience, wisdom] is blind, and he adds that the salvation of human culture in its totality consists in never losing sight of the importance of metaphysical sapientia. Metaphysical wisdom—sapientia—is a specific mode of knowing that Lewis sought to defend and propagate in his writing; it is at the core of the perennial philosophy that has seemed to grow so weak in the