TO THE READER.

...to go forth and offer herself naked and ready to be captured by the adversary; which has often been observed to happen in practice, unless the most cautious provision is made for these matters by fair hostages. But what hostages could be equal to so great a Queen? Thirdly, such a great gathering of spectators and idle people would occur that, even if danger to the life of the virgin did not loom, nevertheless many damages would seem to be imminent, which any rational person will easily perceive for himself.
Let the adversary be incredulous.

Hence it was judged safer that one Pyrgopolynices A "braggart soldier" character from the plays of Plautus, used here by Maier to represent the arrogant, loud-mouthed critic of alchemy., an adversary and an unbeliever, should remain so out of either ignorance or envy, rather than such a great Queen be stripped or despoiled of her goods along with his belief.
The truth of Chemistry can be demonstrated by a single argument.

For just as it is easy to demonstrate a geometric problem (for example, that every acute angle above a straight line, together with its neighboring obtuse angle, is equal to two right angles), so it would be just as easy to demonstrate the Truth of Chemistry Chemia While Maier uses the word "Chemia," in the 17th century this referred to the "Hermetic Art" or alchemy. against its enemies and haters by revealing all its secrets. But because it is a crime and a sacrilege to open these things to everyone, except through riddles, twists, and various turnings—just as sailors sometimes shift their sails against the wind by pushing obliquely toward where they want to go—hence the virgin Chemistry has remained unblemished until now.
Why weapons are handled during feasts.

Nor will anyone truly wonder why we mix weapons among feasts, like music in mourning, if they consider that in the banquets of the ancients, gladiators were often matched against each other among the Romans, as in the Saturnalia A Roman festival in honor of Saturn, characterized by role-reversal and feasting., which are the same as the Mercurialia Festivals of Mercury; Maier links these to the "mercurial" nature of alchemical work. in their first institution and origin; or among the Athenians in the festivals of Minerva, where they fought with various games of arms and spears. Furthermore, these spears of ours are not bloody, such as might create a loathing of the feast at the banquets, but are rather Platonic dishes of reason and speech, which heal the person they wound, like the spear of Achilles According to Greek myth, the spear of Achilles could heal the very wounds it inflicted.; what they refresh today, they may also affect tomorrow. To these—whether they be dishes or spears, according as anyone is minded toward this Virgin (while she, as one pure, carries friendship and enmity ready on her brow)—we invite and refer all who are judges of this dinner or battle: namely, the well-meaning suitors of this girl to the former, and the malevolent haters of the same to the latter; so that both, to the praise of Almighty God and the utility of the Republic... original: "Reipublicae utilita-" (The text cuts off mid-word "utilitatem").