TO THE MOST SERENE AND MOST HIGH

PRINCE AND LORD,

LORD FREDERICK LOUIS,

A large ornamental woodcut initial letter 'T', featuring intricate scrolling acanthus leaves and foliage patterns within a square frame.

To you, MOST SERENE PRINCE, I offer this book, which—to confess frankly—I had decided to dedicate openly to no mortal, but silently to Him alone original: "Soli Illi"; a reference to God to whom all people owe everything. For throughout the entire time I spent composing it, and even beyond that, I very truly intended in my mind to keep my name hidden. This is even evident from the writing style itself: since it is expressed in the first person as if [the soul] were speaking about itself (in the manner of those in meditation The author refers to a tradition of philosophical or spiritual "meditations," where the "I" represents a universal human soul rather than a specific individual.), it does not seem to allow the reader to modestly form an idea of a specific person identifying themselves by name. But when those among my friends whom I know to be most accomplished later urged me with various reasons to declare my name—even though there was no longer time or space in the discourse to change the style—I consented, because the process has been an honest one, without any effort to either please or displease anyone. However, just as the reasoning of others pushed original: "impule-"; continued on the next page as "impulerunt" me to this point—