EPISTLE

to find my rest, following the example of those ancient Romans who had built the temple of Rest in the countryside. I am very grieved, SIRE, not to have been able to offer you in person the flowers and the fruits of the Muses The nine Greek goddesses of inspiration in the arts and sciences. who dwell in this place, from whom I draw as if the inspiration of a new life; my spirit in my old age nourishes itself on little else. The noise of war had, at that time, confined me within the nearby city, and the inconveniences that accompany old age held me there against my will. But disengaged now from both, I come to offer to Your Majesty these Discourses and Treatises concerning Magicians and Sorcerers: against whom the late King Henry the Great King Henry IV of France (reigned 1589–1610)., having previously decreed a commission in all Sovereignty which was placed in our hands, we have acquitted ourselves with all the prudence and integrity possible for us. SIRE, these are strange crimes, evil spells, and novel cases; and the true account of their punishments is drawn mostly from the Registers of that great Consistory of Demi-gods (as Cyneas Cineas, a diplomat of ancient Thessaly, famously described the Roman Senate as an assembly of kings or demi-gods. called the Roman Senators) to better drive out the incredulity and misbelief that the Sovereign companies, and all Judges and other great personages might have regarding them; and to convict of error and blindness those who take more pleasure in the obscurities of Eclipses than in the pure and clear rays of the Sun. These are the new Academics A reference to the "New Academy" school of Greek philosophy which promoted skepticism and the idea that nothing can be known for certain. who maintain that there is no truth in what is said of Sorcerers and of Sorcery Sortilege: specifically the practice of divination or casting lots to influence fate, but rather that the whole thing is nothing but illusion. I know well, SIRE,