TO THE MAGNIFICENT

DIGNITY, NOBILITY OF FAMILY, AND EMINENT

ORNAMENTS OF PIETY, PRUDENCE, AND REMARKABLE LEARNING,

TO MR. EBERHARD MOLLER, most distinguished Consul

of the illustrious Republic of Hamburg, Lord, patron

and kinsman, and to MR. EBERHARD

TVVESTRENGH, Secretary of the same Republic,

Licentiate of Both Laws Civil and Canon Law, his own brother,

ἐκ τῆς καρδίας φιλοιλ- most beloved from the heart.

A circular emblem features a stylized sun or starburst design within a decorative border.

How remarkable the harmony is that is observed in our body, most adorned men: and how truly this earthly dwelling of ours is drawn, as if by white horses A reference to the Platonic chariot allegory, toward a goal closest to divinity, where it submits to the mind presiding in the highest citadel and moderating with a golden rein; clear reason shows this, the authority of the most serious Plato confirms it, and practice itself proves it. Yet one would hardly deny that, in that great theater of the world, and in its individual parts, it behaves in the same way, and that the political state, supported by the same protections, is raised to the pinnacle of highest happiness. From this, one can more easily recognize and more rightly give thanks for the happiness of our Fatherland, because we observe that in its highest administration and in the peak of Consular dignity, four principal Governors flourish, who at almost the same time, as most noble alumni of the illustrious Academy of Wittenberg, joined together the χάριτας graces and the wisdom of the state and strength, in a happy bond, and bring forth its fruit with great benefit to the fatherland. Just as the view of such great goods feeds the minds of all with a most grateful spectacle and fills them with the highest pleasure, so there is also hope, through the most noble and adorned sons of each, along the same literary path,