TO THE READER.

temporary: but the things which are not seen are eternal. original: "tijdelijck : maar de dingen die men niet en siet sijn eeuwigh." A reference to 2 Corinthians 4:18.

Our soul must then necessarily, by reason of the incomprehensible Goodness Goetheydt: the divine quality of being perfectly good and kind, Truth Waarheydt Godts: the ultimate reality and promises of the Creator, and Justice Rechtveerdigheydt: righteousness and fair judgment of God, experience an eternal Blessedness gelucksaligheydt: a state of supreme spiritual happiness or salvation. Our body must also do this, through that same Immutability Onveranderlijckheydt: the quality of being unchangeable, a divine attribute and Perfection Volmaacktheydt: the state of being complete and without flaw of God. Unless we were to judge most errantly that our soul and our body would have been better left uncreated, rather than being brought forth for so short a day to endure this most miserable exile ballinghschap: a common 17th-century metaphor for earthly life as a temporary displacement from our true home in Heaven. But this cannot be, since our soul is as much bound to our body as our soul is united with God, without whom she In 17th-century Dutch, the soul (ziel) is grammatically feminine. could not exist for a single moment. For which weighty reasons we expect, after these short-lived miseries, a life without end, where thorns of sorrow shall never grow, but instead always the roses of everlasting delights.

I had this to say to you, Reader, before you should read the account of this Little Creature Dierken: a diminutive term for the Ephemeron or mayfly, which I judge to be entirely useless and vain if it does not lead us to its Creator Maacker: literally 'Maker'; Swammerdam views the study of nature as a form of worship, so that we may Him alone, continually and with all our hearts...