Basil Valentine: Last Will & Testament (1671)

...and true an art and science, I have corrected a great part of the former translation and de novoLatin: "anew" or "from the beginning." translated the rest that was so imperfectly done that it would not admit of amendment. More is also added to it that was not in the former. The meanness and plainness of the style pleads for itself; the subject is best understood in that dress, and the Author preferred it, being plentifully endowed with the grace of humility, favoring things more than words, as appears throughout his writings. Read him diligently and often, for the oftener you read him, the plainer his works appear; it being usual with the best Authors in this art to discover the secret arcanums most plainly, yet so dispersedly, and in so confused a method, that the envious and unworthy shall never be able to reduce them into their due order. Therefore, often reiterate the reading of this book and compare his sayings with the sayings of other philosophers. If you are adeptedSkilled or proficient; an initiate in the alchemical art. to this sacred science, you will most easily apprehend the manual operation thereof. I need say no more concerning our Author; if you read his works, they will sufficiently testify to his worth. I heartily wish every one of you, if adepted thereto, as much contentment and pleasure in the reading and operating the several works herein mentioned and discovered by our Author as he himself had in the writing and experimenting of them. And may your labors and expenses be crowned with equal success, so that you as devoutly and humbly undertake the enterprise as he did, and make as good use of what Divine Providence shall permit you to partake of as our author did.