Words to the reader. That this book is allegorical and mystical rather than dogmatic. Chapter One.

It is a Pythagorean precept, noble-minded Peter, and a truly divine one, that one must not speak of divine matters or mysteries without light. In these words (as I judge), that wise man signifies not only that nothing should be dared in divine matters except insofar as the light of God itself has revealed it to minds inspired from above; but he also seems to warn that we should not set out to perceive or declare the hidden light of divine things without first preparing this manifest light. Therefore, for the present, we shall approach the former from the latter, not so much by formal reasoning as by certain comparisons drawn from light to the best of our ability.

But you, meanwhile, most careful reader—and, I hope, most indulgent toward us—remembering that we are operating under the Sun of Apollo The god of light, music, and prophecy, used here to represent poetic inspiration and in a poetic manner, do not hereafter demand from us more severe or (as the Greeks say) dogmatic original: "dogmatica"; referring to fixed, literal doctrines treatments. Indeed, with Phoebus Another name for Apollo as my guarantor—for these are his gifts—I have promised only an allegorical and mystical term: anagogical (anagogicam) — a method of spiritual interpretation that leads the mind upward to divine realities exercise of the wits. The Muses never dispute with Apollo; instead, they sing. Even Mercury himself, the first inventor of the art of disputation, though he treats grave matters with Saturn or Jupiter, nevertheless plays when he is with Apollo. He indeed jests not only aptly, but divinely. As for us, would that we at least do so not ineptly.