Preface to the Reader. original Latin: Vorrede ad Lectorem

Benevolent reader, daily experience shows that nearly all people are by nature so inclined that they desire not only to be wealthy—to acquire and possess gold and goods—but also that the more they have, the more they wish to have, as the Poet rightly says in his verse:

The love of money grows as much as the wealth itself grows.

original Latin: Crescit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pecunia crescit.

And

The more water is drunk, the more it is thirsted after.

original Latin: Quo plus sunt pota, plus sitiuntur aqua. These lines, often attributed to the Roman satirist Juvenal and the poet Ovid respectively, illustrate the idea that greed, like thirst, is never truly satisfied.

But everyone also desires and wishes for long-lasting health of their body, a fresh memory, strong and straight limbs, and so forth original: 2c., a common early modern abbreviation for et cetera. These are indeed high and great gifts, granted primarily by God out of special grace...