Two horizontal rows of decorative fleurons or woodcut ornaments span the top of the page.

TO

All Ingeniously Diligent original: "Elaborate" Students,

In the most Divine Mysteries of

Hermetic original: "Hermetique" Learning.

A large ornamental woodcut initial 'T' decorated with scrolling foliage and floral motifs.

The subject of this following work is a philosophical account of that eminent secret treasured up in the bosom of Nature. It has been sought by many, but found by few, despite the fact that experienced antiquity has provided faithful (though infrequent) discoveries of it. Past ages, like rivers, have carried down to us on the surface original: "upon the floate" the more light and superficial original: "Sophisticall" pieces of learning; but those that were profound and mysterious sank to the bottom due to their weight and solidity. From there, not everyone who attempts to dive can easily retrieve them. Thus, what our Savior said to his disciples may (I hope without offense) be spoken to the chosen original: "Elected" Sons of Art: "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand" (Luke 8:10).

Sons of Art — A traditional term used by alchemists to describe those initiated into the "Art" of alchemy or the Great Work.

Our English philosophers generally (like prophets) have received little honor in their own country (unless it was paid to them privately). Nor have they performed any mighty works among us, except in secretly administering their medicine to a few sick people and healing them. (For they never publicly showed any greater experiments than what the medicine performs in physick.)

Physick — The early modern term for the practice of medicine and the study of the natural world.

This is what I.O. (one of the first four fellows of the Brothers of the Rosie Cross original: "Fratres R. C.") did in curing the young Earl of Norfolk of leprosy; and Doctor B. Likely Dr. Butler, a famous physician of the era. did in twice removing the virulence of the smallpox from Queen Elizabeth, so effectively that the marks never appeared. But in foreign countries, they have found a more noble reception, and the world is greedy to obtain their works; indeed (rather than go without seeing them), they are content to view