TO THE READER.

These secrets are not of the least importance; rather, after the pursuit of divine things, they are the first and most precious of all. They are intended not for the wandering charlatans and "pseudo-chemical" deceivers who haunt the marketplaces (who, in these matters, are like asses at the lyre original: "asini ad lyram." A classical proverb describing someone who is utterly unsuited to the art or subject they are attempting to engage with., being entirely estranged from all good doctrine and right intention), but for higher intellects—those who have been liberally educated and born for the investigation of greater things. Because these secrets are so subtle, majestic, sacred, rare, and hidden, they must be grasped by the intellect before they are perceived by the senses. They are mastered more through profound contemplation born from the reading of authors—and the comparison of those authors both with one another and with the works of nature—than through sensory operation or manual experimentation, which is blind without a preceding Theory.

Next in rank after these intellectual sciences are those which deal with visible and audible objects. These include Optics (or perspective) and Painting—which is called "mute poetry" by certain poets, just as poetry is conversely called "speaking painting"—as well as Music, whether vocal or instrumental. The ancient Philosophers practiced music so diligently that any man who refused the lyre at banquets was considered unlearned and was forced to sing to the myrtle original: "ad myrtum canere." Referring to a Greek custom where a guest who could not play the lyre would instead hold a branch of myrtle while singing a "skolion" or banquet song., as is recorded of the statesman Themistocles. Socrates was instructed in Music, as was Plato himself, who declared that a man is not harmoniously composed if he does not take joy in musical harmony. Pythagoras was likewise celebrated in this art; it is said he used musical symphony every morning and evening to settle the souls of his disciples.

For Music possesses this peculiar power: to stir or soothe the emotions according to the different musical modes In ancient Greek music theory, "modes" were scales thought to possess specific emotional or moral characters.. For example, the Phrygian Mode was called "warlike" among the Greeks because it was played when entering war and battle, having a unique power to rouse the spirits of soldiers. In its place, the Ionian Mode is now used for the same purpose, which formerly