PREFACE

or labors more than Herculean original: "Herculei"; a reference to the Twelve Labors of Hercules, used here to signify tasks of extreme difficulty. were scarcely—or not even scarcely—ever able to achieve. Therein, difficulties are uncovered and untied, and unknown things are made known; indeed, the sincerity of my wit and the purity of my mind even offers, gives, and dedicates to you with a spontaneous and generous hand that which I have acquired not without great labor and many sleepless nights original: "vigilijs"; literally 'watchings' or wakeful nights spent in study and experimentation..

Therefore, having cast aside the empty promises of empty men, along with all extractions, calcinations Calcination: the process of heating a substance to high temperatures in order to achieve thermal decomposition or to reduce a mineral to a fine powder., solutions, and resolutions original: "reſolutionibus"; the process of breaking a substance down into its component parts., and those solvents which are by no means philosophical but rather corrosive and