PREFACE.

...of friends. I have indeed attempted, as far as was possible, to point out some errors; but I encountered so many in the Greek passages that despair held me back from marking them all. Therefore, I ask this one thing: before you pass judgment, please look at the index of errors original: "erratorum indicem," the errata list common in early books to correct mistakes made during the manual typesetting process.

As for the subject matter itself, it does not escape me how unexpected, how incredible, and even foolish my opinion regarding the Greek myths original: "Græcorum fabulis" will seem to those who believe the Philosopher's Stone Lapis Philosophicus The legendary "Great Work" of alchemy, a substance capable of transmuting base metals into gold and providing the "elixir of life." to be a mere figment of the imagination and something that never existed in the natural world.

Let them enjoy their disbelief for all I care; I envy no one that perspective. I would wish, however, for them to refute the harmony original: "concentum," a term suggesting a musical or mathematical concord that I demonstrate among the various myths of different nations. Let them produce for me just one myth of any repute from among them all, which—along with all the others, or with that of the Stone...