A wide, rectangular woodcut headpiece featuring ornate symmetrical designs of scrolling foliage, acanthus leaves, and stylized floral motifs.

PREFACE,

IN WHICH IT IS DEMONSTRATED,

HOW CAUSES ARE INVESTIGATED THROUGH THEIR EFFECTS, THAT IS, BY DEMONSTRATION A POSTERIORI. The author uses the logical terms "a priori" (from cause to effect) and "a posteriori" (from effect back to cause) to explain his scientific method.

Since it is impossible for even the wisest or most ingenious person to demonstrate or know God himself—the author of the fabric of the Macrocosm The "Great World" or the universe as a whole.—through an a priori path, and since it has never been granted to anyone to define Him essentially (not even to the divine leader Moses), nor shall it ever be granted in any age (so omnipotent and incomprehensible is He in His very being!), it is therefore necessary that He be sought a posteriori. In this way, our knowledge may approach Him through His more excellent effects. The Psalmist Referring to King David in Psalm 19:1, though the text cites 19:4. teaches us to behold His more noble effects in the heavens, and His glory in the firmament, as if in a highly polished mirror, with universal eyes. Because these things are placed above us, it will be necessary to ascend toward a knowledge of them through the elementary stages, as if moving from more complex things toward the simpler through the process of resolution The chemical or logical process of breaking a substance down into its component parts.. No rest in this ascent is to be allowed until those first principles are reached, which, on account of their simplicity, cannot undergo further resolution. This journey is therefore immense, exceedingly thorny, and dangerous; and truly, it is not easy to find by which ladders we might reach the summit of this invisible height without the aid of divine light and the illumination of the Spirit.

Therefore, let it not displease your dignity, I humbly pray and implore you, most Merciful GOD, creator of all things and my helper, that I, an unworthy sinner, pray for your mercy; deign to illuminate me in the knowledge of created things, so that, since you are unknown through what comes before original: "per prius," referring to the a priori method., you may at least be known from what follows original: "ex posteriori," referring to the a posteriori method., namely through your glorious effects. For indeed, you promised to open the gate to those who knock diligently, nor did you forbid anyone from eagerly searching the fountain of goodness; especially since that Spirit of Life, which you breathed into our father Adam, warns and urges us at every moment to strive toward the bright fountain of happiness and to struggle toward the ultimate goal of divine knowledge. This is no less than how the heat inspired by your most noble creature, the Sun, is perceived to move the fruit of some raw and unripened thing assiduously toward its mature perfection. Indeed, by this very breath of yours, adorned with a divine mind, the [minds] of men daily...