Two Volumes of Pasquils

a 4

DEDICATION.

...offered arguments [for my work], and
recommended it abundantly not only for
its utility, but for its pleasantness as well;
from whose Referring to the "many things in the Kingdom of Nature" mentioned on the previous page. innumerable abundance I
had resolved to pluck certain most
fragrant flowers original: "flores... decerpere." This is a common 17th-century metaphor for selecting the best excerpts from various authors to create a "florilegium" or "bouquet" of wisdom. and, in the manner of
the Ancients, scatter them at the
thresholds of your houses, O Greatest
Patrons original: "Patroni Maximi." Faust is addressing the members of the Frankfurt City Council.:
Yet, I know not by what chance, while
I was fixed in these thoughts, there
occurred to me Eirenaeus Philalethes,
an Englishman original: "Eyrenæus Philalethes, homo Anglus." Philalethes was a famous and mysterious 17th-century alchemical author, now widely identified as George Starkey. His works were considered some of the most important in the "secret" or "Hermetic" tradition., a man distinguished
especially in those more secret writings
which search into the hidden things of
nature (a glory which, for this nation... The sentence continues onto the next page, likely praising the English for their contributions to alchemy.