TO CHRISTINA

AUGUST QUEEN

GIOVANNI ALFONSO BORELLI

ACADEMICIAN OF THE QUEEN, GREETING.

It is known and well-understood, LADY, that men possess an insatiable desire for knowledge, and therefore we see them easily drawn and impelled by the instinct of Nature to admire works and machines elaborated with the highest artifice. Furthermore, the human character has always so gratefully revered, praised, and deeply loved the authors of these same admirable works that it has bestowed divine honors upon them.

By these stimuli, or seeds, or rather sparks of that inaccessible ethereal splendor implanted in the minds of men, supreme Goodness has deigned to show Itself to us, to call us, and to entice us. This, however, It accomplished by exposing to plain view the treasures of Its infinite Wisdom in this open Book of Heaven, and of Earth, and of all visible creatures, and especially