Compendium of All Natural Science

...require little) but others were much more serious, even to the detriment of the sense. However, I have changed nothing rashly, nor otherwise than the matter itself seemed to demand, as I have made this philosophy almost a familiar possession for myself through public lectures, never interrupted for twelve years now, both at home and abroad. There are places where I did not wish to change the text, relegating my conjectures to the margins. This labor of mine, completed in not many spare hours—which I indeed undertook all the more willingly because I would also honor the memory of that most excellent man Ermolao, from whose writings I once profited greatly, as if in stork-like gratitude—I share first with you, most sweet Jakob, and offer it as a small gift of good omen for the apprenticeship of your studies: that I might add a spur to one who is already running, so that you might more promptly and eagerly embrace this part of wisdom, which, if not to be mastered thoroughly by all students, is at least to be sampled in the manner of a compendium. Farewell, and thus in these matters of Nature