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To the Well-

Born, Valiant, and Steadfast, Lord Johann Heinrich von Lyttichaw, of Kmelen, Secret Councilor to the Elector of Saxony, etc., my most gracious Lord and Patron.

Well-born, Valiant, and Steadfast, most gracious Lord and Patron: How highly, in former times, the philosophers and natural scientists lamented and sighed over universal nature and the providence of the gods in their blind delusion, that, among all other animals (which, one and all, bring their own weapons and protection against all manner of adversity and accidents into this world with them), man alone was created bare, naked, and to such a degree needy of all external help that he cannot provide for himself—neither for eating nor drinking, nor for other bodily necessities—without the assistance of his fellow men; this we have to read extensively in their writings here and there.