CAMPEGIUS VITRINGA

To the Sincere Reader

Decorative drop cap 'Q' featuring intricate floral and foliage patterns surrounding the letterform.

That I, my friend the Reader, should dare to make public the thoughts of my early youth in this age of ours, and to risk my entire reputation—if indeed I have any—will, I believe, be taken poorly by many, approved of by few, and wondered at by most. For we live in an age in which very few will say what deserves praise, but almost everyone will say what deserves blame. Indeed, I have not formed such a high opinion of my own writing that I believe it could withstand the judgment of everyone. Do not think so, Sincere Reader original: "Candide lector"; a common 17th-century greeting implying a reader who is fair-minded, honest, and well-disposed toward the author, since I have observed that not even the works of the most learned of men have been able to achieve that. I am a young man, and you know how boldness original: "audacia" sometimes aids a young man, and sometimes drives him astray. I certainly would not think it has happened otherwise for me, though I have not noticed it until now. For we mortals pursue both ourselves and that which is our own with such great love that we view whatever is worthy of praise in us with sharp eyes, while that which should be blamed The sentence is interrupted here; the catchword "me-" at the bottom of the original page suggests the next word is "metuimus" (we fear) or "merito" (deservedly).