TO THE READER.

...which neither prosperity nor adversity, neither old age nor death, shall be powerful enough to take from us.

    I have often been disturbed within myself when I have heard people say, in total ignorance, that some animals are born by chance or out of corruption original: verrottingh. Swammerdam is referring to the theory of "spontaneous generation," the then-popular belief that insects and small creatures grew spontaneously from mud or rotting meat. Much of his work was dedicated to proving that all life comes from an egg.; whereas, nonetheless, in all the limbs of those animals—even in those of an Ant, of a Fly, and of a Louse—an art is to be seen which is as difficult to grasp as it is to describe. And which one could never fully investigate, even if one were to sharpen his instruments under magnifying glasses magnifying glasses Dutch: vergrootglaasen. While we now use the word "microscope," in 1675 the technology was still in its infancy, consisting of high-quality hand-ground lenses., as I have often done. For the internal organs of these little creatures are so incomprehensibly small that all the tools, however subtly they are ground, seem like large and clumsy masts Dutch: mastboomen. The author uses a nautical metaphor, suggesting that even his finest dissection needles were as thick as ship masts compared to the tiny vessels of an insect. by comparison. Therefore I dare challenge all men to provide a description of even the very least creature of the earth, or to represent it in such a way that it cannot be improved by another. And if they cannot do so? Just as it is indeed impossible for them: Ah, then let them give God the honor of being unsearchable, awesome, and adorable in all His fine creatures.

    As for me, I can [say] this with tru- The text cuts off here, likely continuing with "truth" (waarheid) on the following page.