PREFACE.

Various judgments original Latin: "iudicia" concerning my writings.

I know full well that various and many strange judgments original Latin: "iudicia" concerning these works original Latin: "Operibus" of mine that I have just mentioned have been passed here and there; but what is one to do? One must let people talk until their gray beards fade away.

I have always judged it to be the mark of a distinguished and wise man to dismiss the slanders original Latin: "calumnias" of fools and the wicked with a great spirit.

But I also speak and say that everyone should judge it as he understands it, according to whether he is inclined original: "affectioniret," meaning to have a specific disposition or emotional bias toward my person or toward the teaching of my aforementioned writings. The fool judges foolishly; the ignorant, ignorantly; the worldly, purely worldly; the mocker, mockingly; the envious, grudgingly; the slanderer, slanderously; the scorner, scornfully; every bird sings according to how its beak has grown. A German proverb meaning people speak according to their nature and capacity. The world rewards in no other way.

Though we cannot all compose poetry original: "dichten", yet we all wish to judge original: "richten".

But a mind conscious of what is right laughs at the lies of rumor original Latin: "Sed, Conscia mens recti, famæ mendacia ridet".

Be that as it may, I know for certain on the other hand—and can also prove it (where necessary) with many letters—that good people who understand the Art original: "Kunstuerstendige"; likely referring to the "Sons of Art" or those initiated into alchemical knowledge...