THE

GENERAL PREFACE.

1. The author's excuse for the alterations he has made in this edition of his books.
2. The general scope of this entire volume.
3. The excellence and necessity of reason for maintaining the truth of the Christian religion.
4. His apology for frequently weaving Platonism and Cartesianism Platonism refers to the philosophy of Plato; Cartesianism refers to the philosophy of René Descartes. into his writings.
5. Certain notices for the more profitable reading of his books.
6. Divine insight original: "Sagacity" is a principle that must come before original: "antecedaneous to" successful reason in contemplations of the highest importance.
7. The aforementioned principle further illustrated and confirmed from Aristotle.
8. The author's excuse for omitting, in his Antidote, a refutation of the weak original: "unconcluding" arguments some people use to prove the existence of God.
9. His excuse for not adding a treatise on Superstition to the one on Enthusiasm In the 17th century, "enthusiasm" usually referred to a claim of private, direct divine inspiration, often viewed with suspicion as religious fanaticism..
10. That it should be no offense to the knowledgeable and open-minded that men feel a shyness and suspicion toward such truths as they have not been acquainted with.
11. Certain remarkable facts concerning Descartes and his writings.
12. Certain considerations brought together which completely prevent all imaginable objections against the idea of a spirit occupying space original: "Extension of a Spirit." This was a major philosophical debate: whether spirits are "extended" in space like matter or are non-spatial..
13. The properties and roles of the Spirit of Nature further cleared and confirmed. A logical conclusion original: "Consectary" concerning the guidance of souls by the Spirit of Nature.
14. That the ancient Jewish Kabbalah original: "Judaical Cabbala" consisted of what we now call Platonism and Cartesianism, made further probable by the lineage of the Pythagorean School.
15. Particular considerations from Pherecydes, Parmenides, and Aristotle that might move one to believe that the whole Pythagorean philosophy—both physical and metaphysical—was the ancient wisdom of the Jews.
16. The unfortunate separation of the physical part of the Kabbalah from the metaphysical in the works of Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus; along with the author's serious endeavor to reunite them.
17. That what he applies to the text of Moses in his Philosophic Kabbalah, he believes is rational and is assured that it perfectly fits the text, but he continues to deliberate further concerning its ultimate truth.
18. The testimony of several holy persons who either plainly asserted, or at least did not dislike, the doctrine of the soul's pre-existence: Clement of Alexandria, Origen original: "Origenes Adamantius", Clement's scholar, St. Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, Synesius (Bishop of Cyrene), Arnobius, Prudentius, St. Augustine, the author of the Book of Wisdom, and our blessed Savior.
19. That there is not the least conflict between pre-existence and the inheritance of original sin from Adam.
20. That mathematical certainty in purely philosophical speculations does not require any man's conscience to make a public profession of them.