On the Illusions of Demons

EPISTLE

...wickedness. For he believes that those so educated cannot be brought back to a change of heart original: "resipiscentia," implying a return to one’s right mind or the fruit of truth. It is not so easy to adapt a new thing to the common mind and agreement of men.

Yet no one will slander this undertaking of mine as if I—like some arrogant Suffenus Suffenus was a proverbially bad poet mentioned by the Roman poet Catullus; he was famously unaware of his own lack of talent, and far from conscious of my own insignificance—rashly presume to understand or be able to do anything more than others. I know well how meager my mental resources are original: "curta supellex," literally "shortness of household goods," a Roman idiom for a lack of intellectual depth, and no one knows it more surely than I; and this I know: that I know nothing. No one’s judgment is being pre-empted here. Added to this are my daily meditations and constant travels, which certainly snatch away the leisure time that ought to be diligently devoted to such late-night studies lucubrations; scholarly work performed by candlelight. For this reason, during the previous hunts held at Hambach A hunting estate of the Duke of Cleves, while I was serving your Highness and your illustrious and noble offspring by virtue of my office, I devoted myself primarily to this study.

Therefore, I not only gladly and honestly acknowledge, but also openly and freely profess, that many others could have, and still can, surpass this "infancy" of mine Weyer refers to his own writing as "infantia," or "speechlessness," a common trope of authorial modesty by many degrees—through a deeper inquiry into the truth, a clearer style, and a more vigorous and evident demonstration—both because of their sharp wit and excellence in learning, and especially because they have more leisure time. But in the meantime, I hope that those fortunate minds will be provoked by my meager writing, so that they might either instruct me more correctly by speaking—which is usually the fruit of such comparisons—or, by remaining silent, [permit] this opinion of mine, which sounds a double octave out of tune original Greek: "δὶς διὰ πασῶν" (dis dia pason); a musical term meaning "completely at odds" or "totally discordant" with the deep-seated religious beliefs of this age...