Preface.

ences original: Wissenschafften; the final syllable "ten" continues from the previous page performed by this nation, it is clearly seen through the investigation of chemical medicines Chymischen Medicamenten; the use of alchemy and chemistry to create mineral-based cures rather than traditional herbal ones by Theophrastus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus (1493–1541), a Swiss-German physician who pioneered the "chemical" approach to medicine. and others—to say nothing of the Rosicrucian Fraternity original: Fraternitet R.C.; the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross, a secret society of sages whose manifestos were published in Germany just years before this text, claiming to possess secret divine and natural knowledge. established by the Germans.

Above all, however, the grace of the Almighty and His immeasurable goodness are to be especially and highly praised, which He has shown to us in these latter times A common 17th-century belief that they were living in the final age of the world before the Last Judgment., in that He has placed the abominable horrors and blasphemies of the Papacy before everyone’s eyes through His precious instrument, Dr. Martin Luther, a native German, and has purified His precious Word from the same.

This benefit, which cannot be sufficiently praised, we should rightly acknowledge from Him with grateful hearts and make proper use of it. Generally, however, we should also praise the high gifts with which God has endowed this laudable nation above others, and maintain them in their proper use.

All of this has now been [undertaken] by the Noble, Honorable, and Highly Learned Mr. Michael Maier, Count Palatine and Knight original: Com. Palat. Eq., abbreviations for the Latin titles Comes Palatinus and Eques, Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, and Princely Hessian Chief Physician Archiatro; from the Greek archiatros, the senior-most physician serving a sovereign or royal court, etc., my especially high-favoring