PREFACE TO THE KING

are considered, Great King, and very many Anagogies original: "absolutissima Anagogia". Anagogy is a method of spiritual interpretation that detects deeper, mystical meanings leading the soul upward. teach them those most absolute Mysteries. But, having dismissed in this way those Philosophers of Letters and Language, I will bring forward my MATHEMATICIANS as the most sincere witnesses of the Rarity of this our Gift. The ARITHMETICIAN (I do not say the Logista A "logista" was a practical calculator or accountant, whereas an "arithmetician" studied the theoretical and mystical properties of numbers.) will he not marvel that his Numbers—which 2. 1. he used to hide in the recesses of Dianoia original: "Dianoas". Discursive or rational thought. as things Abstracted from Bodily objects and free from all sensible things, and there handled by the various Actions of the Mind—are shown here, in our work, to be and to become as if Concrete and Bodily? And that their Souls and Formal lives are separated from them for our uses? Will he not marvel most to see 2. So Great an Offspring of the MONAD: to which no other Monad, or Number, is added by addition, nor can it be applied from without to multiply it? Will he not be affected by the greatest wonder at the 3. Most Subtle and General Rule of the Thing and the Census: original: "Rei & Census". In early algebra, the "Thing" (Res) referred to the unknown variable $x$, and the "Census" referred to its square $x^2$. where ONE THING is proposed as if it were Chaos (capable of dissolving every Arithmetical Doubt), and the Census itself, and the Value, or Estimation (of the Power latent in the THING itself) is here, always in the First Examination, explained by the 4. DENARY Number? The number ten. With the accurate works of Division and Equation (or as that Art prescribes) mediating first? 3. The GEOMETER (my King) will begin to hesitate whether the Principles of his Art are sufficiently and fully established (which is very strange), when he understands it is whispered and hinted here in Secret: that a CIRCLE altogether Equal to a SQUARE is given by the Mystery of this Hieroglyphic MONAD.