PREFACE

...concerning the principles of natural things original: rerum naturalium; this refers to what we would now call physics or natural science, the existence of spirits, the origin and nature of man, and other most weighty chapters of the whole of philosophy, you will dispute in vain, and you will only arrange for yourself inexplicable windings and turnings, unless tradition original: traditione; in this context, "tradition" refers to "Prisca Theologia" or a primordial wisdom revealed by God to the patriarchs and passed down through generations is called to your aid—that is, the most ancient history of the beginnings of all things, which was preserved only among the Hebrew people and was thus propagated to other nations.

And so there are many other chapters of philosophy which consist of tradition alone, of which some have perhaps been entirely lost, such as the science of judging the character and virtues of things from their external figure This refers to the "Doctrine of Signatures," the belief that the physical appearance of plants or minerals indicates their medicinal or spiritual properties.

In the philosophy of other nations, indeed, certain ruins and traces of these things are found, but they are somewhat obscure and mostly shrouded in many fictions, although more and clearer instances occur in one nation than in another, depending on the greater diligence they applied in preserving those things derived from the first parents Adam and Eve and from men taught by God Himself, which were passed down to them.

No nation, however, is found in the whole world that can come into comparison with the Hebrew nation in this specific chapter, whose most ancient annals, established by Moses—a divine man—[contain] so many excellent...