PREFACE

The text continues directly from the previous page's prayer for the author's critic. ...that he may be restored to his senses. Therefore, eager readers, receive with that same generous spirit with which we offer these long labors, undertaken with no small zeal, sleepless nights, great expense, and many hardships. Cast aside the blindness of mind and soul, as well as the envy that is so often accustomed to dull the edge of the intellect and block the path of truth. Weigh these matters with upright judgment as you examine what we have written; for once you discover both the truth and the usefulness of this work, you will perhaps be more favorable toward my studies.

Although it does not escape me that there will be many ignorant men, idle in any serious matter, who will look upon these things with hatred and envy. They will rashly claim that some things are not only false, but even impossible. While they strive to overturn the truth with arguments and empty debates, they truly act in such a way that by "understanding," they understand nothing at all, and thus their own ignorance is laid bare.

Such men, like the profane original: "prophani." Here meaning those uninitiated into the secrets of nature or those who lack the proper intellectual reverence for the subject., ought to be barred from the boundaries of our Natural Magic Magia Naturalis Porta defines "Natural Magic" not as demonic sorcery, but as the highest part of the natural sciences—the practical application of the hidden "virtues" or powers of plants, minerals, and animals.. For those who do not place faith in the miracles of Nature are, in a way, attempting to abolish Philosophy In the 16th century, "Natural Philosophy" was the precursor to modern science, involving the study of the physical universe. itself.

But if we have omitted anything or spoken clumsily: I know that nothing is so well-adorned that it cannot be further polished, nor so full that it cannot