NICOLAUS HEINSIUS, SON OF DANIEL

To the Author of the System.

A great addition to the praises of your father Constantijn Huygens, a famous diplomat, poet, and composer., Huygens,

whom Uranie The Muse of Astronomy in Greek mythology. alone claims entirely for her own.

Even in your cradle, it was your pleasure to crawl through the pathless heavens;

to you as a boy, it was mere play to turn the stars.

Those stars were once no less familiar to you than your own household gods;

known no less than the soil of your birth.

And now you reveal those same stars to a wondering people,

made clear by the light of your own genius.

Just as Titan A poetic name for the Sun., radiating in the starry ether,

scatters his torch everywhere to oppose the night.

Hail, lofty surveyor of the starry Olympus A reference to the heavens, home of the gods.,

who grants us the ability to enjoy the regions above:

through whom, the doubtful mist of the mind having been dispelled,

we are brought face to face with the clear sky.

He calls the Moon down to the earth, without the need for a magic spell,

possessing a hand equal in art to the old man of Syracuse original: "Syracosio... seni" — a reference to Archimedes, the famous Greek mathematician and inventor of antiquity..

Behold! Through you, the father of Jove Saturn. In mythology, Saturn was the father of Jupiter (Jove) and was often depicted as being imprisoned or bound. escapes his dark prison,

and once again wanders across the wide earth.

Blessings on your daring and your zeal; you who reclaim the gods

with your championing pages, and who make the stars your own discovery.

Now that you have removed from Saturn his very chains,

the Golden Age In mythology, the Golden Age was a period of primordial peace and prosperity ruled by Saturn. Heinsius is playing on the fact that Huygens "freed" Saturn from the visual confusion of his rings. returns to the earth as your gift.