Very rough ten minutes of generating associations before reading comments, and I had to google some references (pardon formatting, I'm trying to figure it out):

paths are walked one foot after the other, by careful repetition

• Anki TAPs habits system 1 etc?
• algorithms

crossbow is closer to Mars than pen

• that xkcd comic "x is closer to modern day than historical event"
• Mars is a god, war, planet...
• crossbow was invented in medieval times
• pen was invented in?? eh pens have been around since ink, bad lead
• "pen is mightier than the sword" <- the crossbow (military technology) is closer to war, fighting and further from civilization than the power granted by the "pen" (writing, reason, words, thinking, talking, diplomacy) [real uncertain here]
• timeline is probably not a great way to look at this?
• did someone send a crossbow into space (please yes)
• actually getting more confident re: something about technology and power and goals and shit

Zeno's wisdom of measurement must be considered carefully to achieve Erasmus's glory.

• Zeno's wisdom of measurement...googling this coms up with the "quantum zeno effect" bc of arrow paradox (per wikipedia): "If everything when it occupies an equal space is at rest, and if that which is in locomotion is always occupying such a space at any moment, the flying arrow is therefore motionless"
• heisenberg uncertainty principle
• Erasmus was a well-known Renaissance humanist apparently
• conflict over free will with Luther?

The artists thieving eyes permit no wasted motion.

All the world is stolen by their dedication.

• these two seem to be fairly obviously about science/empiricism
• "wasted motion" might refer to conservation of momentum
• all the world is "stolen" (harnessed controlled understood portrayed)

It is easy to confuse that which is stolen with that which New Caledonia's cartographer made, in telling the difference you'll map while you travel and cut with no blade.

• New Caledonia seems to be an island that was put on maps for a long time but doesn't exist; "that which New Caledonia's cartographer made" might refer to bullshit artistry or honest errors or somewhere in the middle
• at any rate it stuck around because...maps of maps
• it's difficult to tell the difference between what is determined empirically and what is a propogating error?
• "while you travel and cut with no blade" trying to map things for yourself without the correct tools?

So, first pass guessing:

• importance of (habits repetition procedure algorithms)
• Mars thing is ???
• understanding (determinism free will agency) through scientific principles
• dedication to (empiricism science etc) will "steal" the world (develop complete understanding? control entirely?)
• map/territory, + warning to carefully differentiate between what's been repeated in error or straight-up invented and what was "stolen" by the "artists" (scientists?), additional warning re: creating your own maps without the proper tools.