A Defense of the Introduction to a True and Unheard-of Physics

one who is not without success, Lord Johann Otto von Helbig,
Doctor of Medicine, who from Batavia in the East Indies Batavia was the colonial name for modern-day Jakarta, Indonesia, then the hub of the Dutch East India Company.,
sent to us a neat little treatise titled An In-
troduction to a True and Unheard-of Physics original: Introitum in veram & inauditam Physicam. In the 17th century, "Physics" referred to Natural Philosophy, the study of the laws and substances of the natural world.. This is a work which, after I had read it through and weighed it carefully on the scales of reason and experience, greatly pleased me. Therefore, I could not restrain myself from sharing with you—a most learned man and one most inquisitive regarding the laws of Nature—not only this Introduction, etc., but also a certain anonymous letter in response, which Hermetically Referring to the "Hermetic" tradition of alchemy and esoteric philosophy attributed to the mythical figure Hermes Trismegistus. comments upon and explains the Tessa, and the foreign power of the Tessa The "Tessa" is a specific technical term used by Helbig in his alchemical theories, likely referring to a fundamental substance or salt., the words contained in Helbig’s pages, and at the same time my own extensive opinion on the latter. I humbly ask that you, with the admirable sharpness of your divine intellect, might judge these matters as they appear to you, and that you would be willing either to confirm my views or lead me back to the path if I have strayed.

§. 1. My beginning is taken from the title of the anonymous letter, which promises to Hermetically comment upon and explain the words of Helbig’s writing, as it also does in the conclusion of the letter;