THE EPISTLE

...to your Majesty Completes the word "Majestati" from the previous page. they will give thanks; with what praises will all people celebrate your Name, and with what joyful prayers will they follow you! What vows will the neophytes Neophytes: From the Greek for "newly planted," these are the recent converts to Christianity within the Jesuit missions in China. eagerly offer for your safety, for the successful outcome of all things you have undertaken, and for the most prosperous course of your flourishing Kingdom and the Catholic Religion? And God, the Greatest and Best original: "Deus Optimus Maximus," a title frequently used in Latin dedications to ascribe supreme authority to God., will hear their prayers and grant them success; He will long preserve You for the French and for the Christian world, just as the Catholic cause and the entire Church, and as all good men—both your own subjects and foreigners—vow and pray for, and especially he who, above all others, loves and glories to be,

The most devoted and most loyal,
PHILIPPE COUPLET
Of the Society of Jesus.