Histories of Aristotle and Theophrastus

finally, that it is most useful and most necessary for the life of mortals, there is no one so dull of wit, and so alien to common sense, who does not understand. And since Aristotle and Theophrastus seem to me, above all, to have been created for this purpose, through whom the giver of good things willed most kindly to pour out such mysteries for mortals: that I might not be lacking to you in this part also, best Reader, it pleased me to strike off their works which pertain to this, recalled to the anvil, much more diligently and corrected than heretofore, consulting public studies rather than private business. Therefore I vehemently contend from you, that your sincere mind may respond to my zeal in transcribing the best authors, in procuring them. Farewell, and seek the catalog of books on the turned page.

We thought it necessary to warn you, best Reader, before you approach our Indices, that the first number designates the Page, but the other the Verse of that same Page: not always the one which it indicates, but that one must proceed from that very one to the subsequent decimal number: so that whatever you decide to look for, comprised within those ten Verses, may be immediately obvious.