DEDICATORY EPISTLE.

or, lest she circumvent the unwary assessors of fallacies under the bombastic pretext of Constantia constancy. The versatile dispenser of Fortuna Fortune pushes forth the shadowy first name of airy magnificence after golden mountains; but, I pray, what is the flower of glory? Hay: of beauty? A bubble: of splendor? Smoke: of the pomp of the age? A vapor appearing for a moment.

This peddler of trifles, this market-woman, having been pierced by a hundred other javelins, our Vertumnus a Roman god of change and seasons, here representing the changing nature of vanity (otherwise of a serious mildness), labors to pursue her with the din of mockery, and, if Apollo the god of poetry wills it, to expose her to the laughter of Democritus the laughing philosopher. If she cannot be recalled to repentance by the inveterate enticements of momentary happiness, however difficult to move, and by having her machinations of cunning overturned: at least she exposes the genuine image of vanity to Adolescents, who are not yet imbued with the pride of the world but with the spirit of sound Pietas piety, so that, having detected the mask of frauds, they may distinctly perceive the streaks forgotten by cosmetic artifice on the face of the Deceiver, as often as she suggests the material for Salutary Meditations through the playful variety of Verses and Icons; or from...