LETTER TO THE READER.

...they have done; who, after he learned their essence and beheld their proper nature, desired then to penetrate and break through the circuit of the spheres, and to comprehend the power of the Governor presiding over the fire. By these things, indeed, he clearly teaches that it is granted by GOD to men, on account of the nobility of their form, not only to know the natures, movements, and actions of the stars upon these lower realms, but even to progress further to the fiery and Empyrean heaven The Empyrean was considered the highest heaven in ancient and medieval cosmology, the dwelling place of God and pure light., and there to contemplate and admire the power of the presiding Governor and the First of all things. Hence he also called GOD the mind of human reason, whom he also called life and light in that place, from which he willed man himself to be born and fashioned. It is impossible, therefore, to know yourself unless you also know GOD himself; for he who knows himself passes, as the same Trismegistus original: "Trismegisto"; referring to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Hellenistic figure to whom various mystical and alchemical writings were attributed. testifies, unto GOD. It is enough for us, then, that we cannot know ourselves unless, with every effort of our intellect, all the powers of our soul, and with constant prayers for divine grace and light, we daily approach step by step to the proper contemplation of such things, and to the perception of the Creator's admirable idea through demonstration from the later a posteriori: reasoning from observed effects back to their causes. May the Almighty mercifully grant this to you, to me, and to all, through the merits of his only-begotten Son, Amen.

A decorative woodcut tailpiece featuring symmetrical foliate and floral scrollwork designs centered around a stylized mask or face.