PREFACE.

An ornamental woodcut headpiece consisting of symmetrical floral and scrollwork designs.

A decorative historiated initial "C" containing a woodcut scene of a figure holding a staff, standing in a landscape with hills and foliage.

When I had most sharply reflected with myself, day and night, that the calamities of this present life are scarcely ever to be ended except by a happy death, I observed that this human pilgrimage peregrinatio: a journey through life, often viewed as a spiritual trial on earth might be compared, not inaptly, to a restless sea tossed by surging waves. This sea brings constant danger to the bodily ship—driven here and there by an uncertain path—and to the sailor, the soul, who is utterly ignorant of the skill Original: artificij. In this context, it refers to the specialized knowledge or "art" required for spiritual navigation. by which he might auspiciously bring the ship to the unknown harbor of happiness. Whence it happens that out of many thousands of men, scarcely one has directed his course toward that longed-for goal of blessedness beatitudo: a state of supreme spiritual happiness or "the Good Life". Yet, that there is a certain and indubitable seat of human happiness in this world, and that it has been fortunately tracked down by some through long pilgrimage and proper inquiry, is attested by the wisdom of the ancients. By this wisdom, we are taught that Moses, Original: Moyfen. the high priest of divine Philosophy Original: Philosophiæ. In the 17th century, "Philosophy" encompassed all study of the natural and divine worlds, including what we now call science., reached the shore of blessedness; for he held conversation with God, and obtained the key to both kinds of knowledge—namely, the supernatural and the natural—through the divine assistance and illumination of the Holy Spirit. Original: Spiritus. To his virtue there approached— The text ends mid-word with "accese-"; the catchword "runt" indicates the word is accesserunt (they approached/attained).