Psychologia Empirica

I bring forth into the public, I explain all the faculties of the human mind with as much skill as was possible, and I hold up a torch for a more intimate understanding of the endowments and virtues that can adorn the human mind; I had a singular reason, MOST SERENE PRINCE, for laying this work at the feet of YOUR SERENITY with a most humble mind. Indeed, there follows this other reason, no less singular, which it would be a sin to pass over in silence! Just as the learned world today proclaims Aristotle, the supreme philosopher, fortunate because he enjoyed the favor of ALEXANDER THE GREAT, so that by his munificence he was able to accomplish what he would otherwise have attempted in vain; so I [would] proclaim myself no less fortunate—