TO THE READER.

...can be so called, if the hope of the resurrection original: verrijſenis. were lacking to us.

Therefore, this very frail life is in no way lovable, except only in that it paves the way for us through a sincere Penance original: Boete., consisting in the imitation of CHRIST original: naavolginge CHRISTI; a reference to the spiritual path of following Jesus’s example of suffering and humility, and gives the certain hope of a more perfect one; and that it prepares us to one day ascend to that incomprehensible Source original: Oor-ſpronck., upon whom we all depend: while there is nothing in heaven nor on earth that has the power to have created us, or the ability to sustain us in any way.

God, that sole source of all things, He is the one who formed the Head, the Breast, the Belly, the Legs, and the hairy Tails of this little creature original: Beesken. Swammerdam frequently uses diminutives to emphasize the delicacy of the insect and the greatness of its Creator.; He is the one who made its antennae original: Hoornkens, literally "little horns"., its Eyes, its Jaws, its Wings, its Legs, its gills original: Kuwen., its swimming-oars original: Vlot-riemkens; likely referring to the fringed abdominal appendages used by the larva for movement, its Lungs, and its other entrails. He is the one who brought forth its Veins, Tendons original: Peeſen., Muscles original: Spieren., Nerves original: Senuen., Ligaments, Membranes, and the horny Bone of its body: which He joined together through wonderful articulations original: geleedingen; the joints of the insect's exoskeleton; and willed that it—just as in the great beasts—should be moved by the flowing of the spirits original: geeſten; 17th-century physiology held that "animal spirits" were a subtle fluid that traveled through nerves to move muscles into its Muscles. God is He who has [poured] the understanding into man...