TO THE READER.

and to make ourselves worthy of her eternal riches. To which we shall sooner attain, the more quickly we shall discover our inconceivable Nothingness insignificance Dutch: Nietigheydt. A key term in 17th-century Pietist and mystical thought, referring to the total dependency of the creature upon the Creator.: For this discovery is of such an invaluable price, that all the sciences, the glories, and the riches of the world are not to be compared with it. Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, says the Son of God. And Job, who loved nothing but God alone, cries out humbly: My flesh is covered with worms and with the grit of dust. Man born of woman is unclean, short of days, and full of unrest: he comes forth like a flower that is cut down, and he flees away like a shadow that does not endure. Swammerdam quotes Job 7:5 and 14:1-2, standard scriptural proofs for the "vanity" of human life.

Certainly, the contemplation of our Nothingness ought then alone to be our constant Labor, as it is the Purpose for which we have been sent into the Exile and the very strange Pilgrimage of this world: wherein all creatures and objects can serve us, to make us humble and to abase ourselves before God. This is the first step to escape from our miseries, and the true door by which to enter into the contemplation of spiritual matters. Which are, in truth, the sustenance and the life of our soul The text cuts off here, continuing the thought that spiritual things are the only true nourishment for the human soul.