The Vertumnus of Vanity

perspicacious arbiter of my intention, out of filial effect; I have decided to dedicate it to You; lest I be injurious to a most religious Father; or, while you were being reappointed as Provincial over the religious Province of the Piarist Schools throughout Germany, I might be judged alienated from the filial cult of the dignity conferred upon your eminent merits.

For I have scarcely seen the messenger of the double example of Your Piety and Zealous Prudence, flying before the melodious Fame of your arrival from the City of cities Rome, after having strenuously endured the office of General Assistant there for six years, that you would be returned to yours: And, as we were votively wishing for ourselves, it was permitted to know without ambiguity that the helm of the Province was certainly destined for your most capable faith: I was soon entirely seized by a placid violence of obsequiousness; that I might more promptly dedicate this work, which was eager to be put under the press at that very time, inscribed with Your name, as a token of congratulatory veneration and a pledge of a devoted mind; just as greedily as I had hurried to contest my zeal for filial worship of You according to my strength.