PRÆFATIO.

health? But if, by some secret inspiration of the Eternal Mind, a disease should emerge that is incurable, provoked by the anger of such a Deity against our ingratitude and Impiety, who would accuse Nature, as a Stepmother, with the inhuman sacrifice of some rigor? But even it, whatever sort of pestilence it may be, is cast out by the Apostles in Christ, and if anyone calls them true Cabalists for that reason, what will he sin? For by mere utterance and word, they heal men.

To discuss other Characteristic cures is not the purpose of this undertaking; others have treated these things, and have shadowed forth the admirable power of Art combined and joined with Nature, of whom Roger Bacon is not the last. I wish to obtain one thing here: that in the Medical Art (although in it, as in all other Sciences and Disciplines, human ingenuity and industry have not yet extended themselves so far that new things cannot be added to the discoveries of the Ancestors today, which need not envy the ancient age at all), not only is there an abundance of what is conducive to bringing about the safety of the human Body, but also what is for delight and singular appa-