PREFACE TO THE KING #

...[those who know neither that those arts are false, nor that these are true, seek] to bring force (on account of the common people's trivial Slander), or to bring their Name and studies into Hatred, or their Life into danger. This seems to me, O King, not only inhumane, but Unjust and, as it were, Impious. For, just as all Shadows of any bodies whatsoever have COMMON BOUNDARIES with those Bodies themselves wherever they may be (which is very well known to Mathematicians); in the same way, even here, the WISE Sophi: A term for those possessed of true wisdom or initiates in the deeper mysteries of nature. permit phrases of Speaking and Writing to be Common to both the Shadows and the True Bodies themselves. In this, the Unskilled, Rash, and Presumptuous Apes Dee frequently uses "apes" to describe those who merely mimic the outward forms of science without understanding the inner truth. catch at SHADOWS alone—naked and empty—while the Wiser Philosophers themselves enjoy the Solid Doctrine and most pleasing fruit of the BODIES.

Luke, chapter 8

And so we truly see that which happens in practice: that from those people, that which they thought they possessed A reference to Luke 8:18: "To him who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away." (the shadowy version), being neither Solid nor Sincere, is most justly snatched from their hands; while to those who handle the Bodies, every honorable and legitimate Comprehension and Knowledge of the Shadows is granted. It is therefore necessary TO DIVIDE RIGHTLY original: "ΟΡΘΟΤΟΜΕΙΝ" (Orthotomein). This Greek term is famously used in 2 Timothy 2:15 regarding "rightly dividing the word of truth.", O King, between the SHADOW and the BODY, and to distinguish the boundaries, powers, and uses of both. That is the Sword of Justice, belonging to kings and emperors; the performance of which, like many other things, is a Divine Duty. And indeed, by a certain Art, the Wise themselves sometimes willingly admit SHADOWY figures within the winding curves of the Bodies themselves, lest most choice Lettuces be offered to Asses rudely rushing into the Gardens of the Hesperides In Greek mythology, a sacred garden producing golden apples of immortality. Dee uses it here to represent the inner sanctum of sacred knowledge., when Thistles suffice for them A classical proverb suggesting that coarse minds prefer coarse things; "choice lettuce" represents refined, hidden knowledge that would be wasted on the ignorant.. You will forgive me, O King, for convicting the World of Injustice (by the authority of Christ).