Preface / To the highly-praiseworthy

...lovely conduct of your highly-honored Brotherhood This likely refers to the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, a mysterious group of scholars and mystics who published manifestos in Germany during the early 17th century., and what a gracious love for one’s neighbor exists among you—among whom no hatred, envy, nor other such unfaithfulness German: unvertrewligkeiten. This refers to breaches of trust or acts of bad faith that disrupt communal harmony. creep in, but rather all things are held in common by those who are worthy. What mouth will be able to express the sweetness of such gracious love, which is planted in you by God and returns again to God, from whom it came and proceeded? Truly, it will burn and shine once more, into its eternity.

Indeed, with us humans—as we are in our inherited blindness and malice, and having transformed these into a nature itself—Romans 3:4 it is said: All men are liars. And when we read the accounts of our own human history, we say ourselves: In matters of history, one ought to be neither too credulous nor too incredulous. original Latin: In historicis nec nimis credulum nec nimis incredulum esse oportet. This humanist maxim suggests a balanced skepticism is necessary when reading historical records. And when we wish to know an event with the greatest precision, the Plautus comic poet Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 BC), a Roman playwright whose works were widely studied in the Renaissance. teaches us: An eyewitness is worth more tha- original Latin: Plus valet ocularis testis u... This begins a quote from Plautus's play Truculentus: "One eyewitness is worth more than ten who have heard." The text continues on the next page.