GERARD RUFUS TO THE REVEREND FATHER

IN CHRIST and Lord, Lord LAWRENCE BARTHOLINO,

most deserving prelate.

A decorative initial letter I within a square frame, featuring floral and foliate motifs.

Among the duties, most sacred prelate and priest of virtues and letters, which nature, the kind craftswoman of humanity, has bestowed upon us by a divine calculation, ratio reason itself is by no means brought to the last place. Indeed, it is that toward which almost all things assigned to human substance adhere. And this is so fitting, even in the highest degree, since it is the Boundary boundary and bond of the higher and lower things. Furthermore, because in almost all things of an excellent nature, composed and bound away from the waves of darkness and imperfection by the sign of the best figure, as if impressed upon them, reason truly grasps a fuller mark within itself. It touches upon them, or rather, it brings them back to life. Nor is it unknown to anyone what it is to know what is happening, or rather, what has been done, and even what will be. For it is truly the seat of all prudentia wisdom or foresight. By this alone are we separated from all others, and all other things are kept away from our seat. For, as that singular priest of philosophy, Aristotle, says original: "in history of animals": "Man is the only one of the animals that is capable of deliberation, and though many share in memory and instruction, no other is able to engage in recollection except man." original: "ἔστι γὰρ βοῦλευτικόν καὶ μόνον τῶν ζώων ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καὶ μνήμης μέν καὶ διδαχῆς πολλὰ κοινωνεῖ · ἀναμιμνήσκεσθαι δὲ καὶ οὐδὲν ἄλλο δύναται πλὴν ἄνθρωπος." Furthermore, it is not absent from that by which, as if by its own warrant, it refers back to its author, toward whom the numerus number he fashions for himself inclines. Resting upon its own principles, this proximity is so great that it did not hesitate to adapt its own nomenclature to the same. Thus, no one is ignorant that the intervals of numbers are called rationes ratios or reasons. Meanwhile, I should not pass over in silence what has been left in writing by some not ignoble philosophers: that the soul itself is a number, though it is more aptly said to be that which numbers. For when number is sent down to the small voices and instruments of art, it soothes the ears. But the internal hearing itches most of all, and as if with the most pleasant harmony, when it is brought toward divine things. By this support, as it were, the mind, weighing its own strengths, is now lifted into the divine, and soon resides within itself and dwells with itself. Now it is driven in a straight course, relying on that flashing and divine ray from the highest points, ready to flow past the lowest and middle things alike. Immediately, on the other hand, recoiling because of the thickness and bodily mass, it is called back again to the highest things by a blunted and oblique ray. Good God, for whom do the coils not fail, by what motion is one not driven, what functions does one neglect or embrace listlessly, by which, calling oneself away from the body, one might press each thing with its own sign? Here one recognizes power and matter, there the act. Here the many, there the one. Here the composite, there the simple. Here change, there stability. Here the other, there the same. Here the unequal, there the equal. There the infinite, there the finite. Here even, there odd. Here left, there right. Here feminine, there masculine. Here the oblong, there the square. Here opinion, there intellect. Here shadow, there light. Here passion, there action. Here time and age, there the eon and eternity. And, to finish at once, here the footprint, there the truth. Here all things in