TO THE FIRST EDITION

THE LONDON EDITION,

PREFACE.

An ornamental woodcut initial 'I' is decorated with scrolling foliage and floral motifs.

Enter, if you please, for here too are Gods original: "Introite, sultis, nam & heic Dii sunt," a famous saying attributed to the philosopher Heraclitus, suggesting that the divine can be found even in the most unexpected places.. And not only Syrian ones. In my leisure and appointed hours (as befits a Christian man), being accustomed to turn aside to the Sacred Scriptures from the subtleties of the Law original: "Juris... apicibus," literally the "pinnacles" or fine points of legal doctrine. Selden was a professional jurist. to which I am bound, I looked for—besides those more solid matters which are the comfort and food of the soul—other things pertaining to a somewhat more accurate knowledge of ancient affairs. I had also separately and diligently set aside those Gods encountered [in the text] into my notebooks Adversaria (commonplace books used by scholars to organize research and excerpts), together with those things drawn from secular original: "prophanis," meaning non-sacred or classical Greek and Roman literature literature which might pertain to this subject; and I had arranged them according to the order of the commentaries on the Sacred books of the OLD TESTAMENT original: "VETERIS INSTRUMENTI," a term used by early theologians like Tertullian to refer to the Old Testament as a legal or historical instrument alone. From that source, this new and hitherto unattempted little work has emerged. It...