Reconditorium ac reclusorium opulentiae sapientiaeque numinis mundi magni, cui deditur in titulum chymica vannus, obtenta quidem & erecta auspice mortale coepto ...

Interverbium.

I would recognize, nor would I wish to equate myself to anyone, even the least, much less to gloriously prefer myself; nevertheless, if such humility were not so pleasing to God, and useful among men, I would almost have dared to affirm that most of them, however much of a "refined nose" a classical idiom for a discerning person and "oiled Lar" referring to a well-cared-for household god or pampered person they might be, with all their wisdom and skill, would hardly have done it a second time in such a way.

10. And you will say this even more, and repeat it with me, reader, once you have weighed the matter a little more strictly in the balance. For then, you will find a most luminous reason not to condemn, but rather to admire vehemently: how, namely, I have still, in so brief a space, attacked this work—and this, whatever it is—with equal daring and fear (even being unconditioned and a stranger, without property and money on the journey; without fire, in the strongest winter; and having no book, nor any companion). In the worst days, which are entirely, clearly, the burdens of extreme necessity, and the cares of acquiring food and clothing that extract different things from me, I have watched to such a file meaning the revision process as you see;

11. I, furthermore, sometimes near midday, sometimes near evening, having feasted with those most expert and sagacious Aristarchos harsh or pedantic critics, returned continually as empty in belly as I was broken and religious in mind. But along the way, I threw around manifold thoughts and dragged them through my mind. For sometimes, craning my neck, I would shout barbarically: "Oh, what a parasite, what a spheudocrites false judge or critic the world is! Puppies are judged by moles. What an unregulated school this is! Ants are instructed by woodpeckers. What a turbulent sea! Small fish are devoured by great ones. How poorly ordered a stable it is! Sheep are oppressed by oxen. Poor men of good mind are diversely depressed, rejected, and neglected; others flourish, happy as much in vices as in riches. He who defends the most just cause does not obtain his right, but falls in the case. Alas, the mortals