DEDICATORY EPISTLE

der little claws original: "vnguiculis"; continuing the "lion" metaphor from the previous page, where a person’s character is judged "by the claw." of some time ago, we know well and more than enough who and how great you are destined to be. For as that man—whether he be the Poet of Philosophers or the Philosopher of Poets—Lucretius truly sings:

Afterward, when age has matured with robust strength,
the judgment is also greater, and the power of the mind is increased.
These lines are from Lucretius’s "On the Nature of Things" (De Rerum Natura), Book 3, lines 449–450. The poet argues that the mind develops in tandem with the physical body.

If, therefore, you were so great while still very small, how great will you be when you are one day grown? But I do not wish to go about as a trumpeter buccinator: literally a trumpet-player; here used to mean a loud-mouthed herald or someone who boasts on another's behalf of your praises. Although these praises are already great enough, You yourself will increase them more gloriously and more willingly by your actions than I could by my speaking. For that [is] pre-