To FROUK FULLENIA.

Heart-dear and very faithful.

Satisfied partner in prosperity as in sorrow;
Much-valued Mother of two Daughters and one Son;
And pearl on the gold of our triple crown.
May this paper-child greet You as mother;
I give it into your arms. And it must sweeten my grief,
That, although this autumn-offspring differs from the body's fruit,
As not generated according to the law of marriage with your help;
But through the separation of hours and of days,
Yes, nights for a part: you nonetheless take pleasure;
Who yourself, neither charmed by fear nor by friends' advice,
Advised me against leaving. And it was your last word
At the parting. That is faithfulness! Now I say besides,
That this, my child alone, shall outlive the three.
Whom God gave us together. For, if I foresee it well,
It grows up against the displeasure. And as for the three:
It shall, through brotherhood in daily interaction,
As if wiser, teach them Christianity from firmer grounds;
And banish superstition, the obstacle and terror of virtue,
Through the fear of the great God. Therefore I,
What do I say? You and I, Beloved, (I may believe it)
Even if my Letter-child were rejected by everyone;
We would gladly shelter it in the house for the service of You and me;
There it keeps property and blood free from Ghost and Devil.
Who fears, whom God preserves? whose heavenly blessing
Is sought and obtained through childlike fear.
May that God of the Fathers and our Children's God
Lead them with us into the eternal blessed fate.

August original: "Oogstmaand" 1691.

PREFACE

To the entire Work, and especially the first Book.

To the Discreet and observant Reader, Salvation!

A decorative initial letter I is set within a square frame, embellished with floral and foliate patterns.If ever a writer found it necessary to provide any notice beforehand about a work that he brought to light: so it seems to me that I, in such an occasion as this is, should not do otherwise. For I have two special reasons for this above others; of which one concerns the circumstances that occurred at the publication of the work, and the other concerns the content thereof. Both strange and unusual, and the latter seen as even stranger by means of the first. Therefore I will here give notice to the favorable and truth-loving Reader; first of the one, thereafter of the other.

How I then first came to those thoughts, that I should bring to light something serving the matter of which this book speaks: I indicated eight years ago, at the end of my Preface to the work on the Comets, with few words; which I shall now, for the information of the Reader, declare somewhat more circumstantially. Being busy handling the Prophet Daniel in the Pulpit; and having come to the 11th verse of the 2nd chapter, where the Sorcerers, so-called, confess themselves not capable of telling the King's dream: so I concluded from that, what one has to believe according to this regarding the Devil's knowledge, commonly attributed to him. And because it seemed to me that it would not be unserviceable to examine his power likewise; whether that might be as great as people say of him: so I stepped aside once, and took for the next occasion as my text that which one reads in Exodus 8:18; seeking the reason why those Sorcerers could not bring forth lice as well as frogs or snakes. Master Tamminga, of praiseworthy and blessed memory, Lord of Bellingweer etc., a learned and godly nobleman, was in the church at that time; and had great taste for that discourse. And as His Honor judged that there was something in it which, being read just as it had been heard, might deserve the agreement original: "toe- toestemminge"