DEDICATION

...of order combined with learning original: "doctrina", which finally emerges from these things through a long, concatenated series of reasonings. Nor is it possible to perceive, without turning one's mind toward them, the utility original: "usum" which the teachings born from those principles will provide in administering the State original: "Rep." or "Respublica" and in promoting the happiness of the human race. And just as the largest trees grow from the smallest seeds, so too the truths of the greatest importance are deduced from principles which are esteemed to be of little, or indeed no, importance. If no mortal had yet seen the seeds from which trees draw their origin, would he not seem insane to the whole human race who, bringing some seed into view, asserted that he wished to draw out a tall tree—such as we encounter in the forest—from a tiny little grain? Therefore, the fertility original: "fœcunditas" of the first principles of philosophy seems no less to surpass all belief, before the dogmas original: "dogmata," here meaning established principles or doctrines are deduced from them in the less abstract disciplines and applied to...