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GIRARDUS RUFFUS TO THE REVEREND

FATHER AND LORD IN CHRIST, LORD LAURENTIUS BARTHOLINUS, most worthy prelate. Greetings.

An ornate woodcut initial "I" decorated with floral and vine patterns. Among the duties, most holy prelate, and guardian of virtues and letters, which nature—that artificer of kind humanity—has bestowed upon us through divine calculation: reason is brought forth at the very end. Indeed, it is that to which nearly all things assigned to human substance cling as one. And this is as fitting as can be, since it is the boundary and connection between the higher and lower things. And thus, that which is impressed upon the majority of noble natures like the sign of a perfect figure, restricted by the fluctuations of darkness and imperfection, it gathers into itself with a fuller mark. It gathers, or rather, it refers back to the living source. Nor is there anyone who does not know that knowing what is happening—or rather, what has been done, and what is yet to be—is the seat of all prudence. By this alone we are distinguished from all others, and individual things are kept from our proper seat. For (says that singular guardian of philosophy, Aristotle, in his History of Animals) "Man alone is a deliberative animal, and while he shares much with others in memory and instruction, only man can recollect." Moreover, it is not far from him: he refers his author back to the source, as if by his own authority. To this he directs the number he constructs for himself. Resting on its own principles, it confers such proximity that it does not hesitate to accommodate its own nomenclature to it. No one is unaware that intervals of numbers are called "ratios," not to mention that I pass over in silence the fact that it has been left in writing by some not-ignoble philosophers that "it" [the soul or intellect] is also a number, although it is more aptly said that it is that which counts. For when number is reduced to the small notes of the voice and the instruments of art, it soothes the ears. But by far the greatest and most pleasant inner harmony stirs the hearing when it is led to divine things. With this support, the mind expending its own strength is sometimes raised to divine things, then presently resides in itself, and dwells with itself. Now it travels a straight path: supported by the flashing and divine ray from on high, it is prepared to pass over the depths and the middle things alike. Immediately, however, repelling due to its gross and corporeal mass, and by a blunt and oblique ray, it is recalled again to the heights. Good God, to what does it not confer movement, by what motion is it not driven, what functions does it neglect or grasp at lazily, while it calls itself away from the body and presses each thing with its own sign? Here it recognizes power and matter; there, act. Here, the many; there, the one. Here, the composite; there, the simple. Here, change; there, stasis. Here, the other; there, the same. Here, the unequal; there, the equal. Here, the infinite; there, the finite. Here, the even; there, the odd. Here, the left; there, the right. Here, the feminine; there, the masculine. Here, the oblong; there, the square. Here, opinion; there, intellect. Here, shadow; there, light. Here, passion; there, action. Here, time and age; there, an age and eternity. And (to finish at once) here, a trace; there, the truth. Here, all things in