A decorative woodcut headpiece spanning the width of the text block, featuring symmetrical scrolling foliage, floral motifs, and circular vine patterns in black ink.

EPIGRAM OF THE

AUTHOR:

The most famous band of the Indian Brahmins,
Drew many toward themselves through the love of their doctrine:
Of whom, once one was received by the social law,
Having been learned in the marvelous art:
Swearing silences from the consecrated vial of the Federation,
He himself drinks from that which Tantalus carried in his right hand.
For thus the matter, being so great, demanded that secrets be covered,
Lest a gossiping tongue betray the silent faith.
Indeed, it is reported that Tantalus scattered to the common crowd
Things that should have been kept silent in the secret ways of the Gods:
Thence he is pressed by thirst, surrounded in the midst of waves,
And his apples cannot relieve his hunger.
Hence the Order of the German blood rightly guards itself,
Lest it give sacred gifts, or its own roses, to dogs.
When dogmas have proceeded from a faithful mind,
And men who were not faithful did not wish to believe them;
It holds safe silences hereafter (just as before), lest anyone
Sing of this Phantom, or of fictitious deceits:
May the evil mind of the ungrateful receive its worthy rewards,
And may glory be to each according to their merits.