The Various and Ingenious Machines

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TO THE MOST CHRISTIAN KING.

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Truly glorious and royal was that answer of the renowned Athenian Themistocles Athenian politician and general, who, being asked what singular prize or what excellent voice would be most agreeable for him to hear in the theater while praising his worthy and illustrious life, let it slip from his wise mouth that the voice which was equal and conformable to his merits and virtues had pleased him above all others. By this he tacitly insinuated to the world that, just as false praises unjustly attributed to unworthy men infinitely denigrate their lives, so too the deserved glory of illustrious spirits, manifested among men, adds a very clear splendor to unconquered and heroic hearts, such as that of your Most Christian Majesty. You, therefore (as I persuade myself), will accept that I admire and revere the generosity of your royal courage, the very clear prudence, the affable benignity, and the terrifying force of your divine valor. These flourishing gifts, in order to acquire the palm of so many sublime virtues and honorable qualities divinely assembled in you, strive to have in particular the greatest dominion in your very high spirit. From this it happened that, fleeing the laudable style of illustrious writers who are accustomed to dedicate the excellent works and glorious fruits of their very noble understandings to the supreme Monarchs of the earth as to true divinities and their singular gods in this present life; I too, having regard for this divine conformity to which celestial favor has conformed your Most Christian Majesty to the eternal God, to dominate and give laws to the very powerful and magnanimous great Kingdom of France; I will not take the boldness (to avoid the reputation of Timagoras an ambassador of Athens to Persia near Darius Persian King, or of Aristippus Greek philosopher near Dionysius Tyrant of Syracuse) to enter into the spacious fields of your royal pomps and triumphant glories, especially since their height hinders not only the smallness of my understanding but also the most elevated spirits from being able to reach the shadow of these unheard-of merits, which at all hours with great