Complete Works (Opera Omnia)

[God], was worshipped by men with the highest veneration and gifted with the most precious offerings—most especially crowns of gold and gems—amidst the general celebration of the cities. Lest he himself, being indebted to such a great name, should seem to have fallen short in honoring him, he devised something truly worthy of his Constantine. It was a crown, you see, not marked by gold and gems, nor illuminated by twelve rays according to ancient ritual, but fashioned from the most beautiful flowers of Philosophy and from the greenest laurel groves of the Academy. He had woven it himself, original Greek: συλλεξάμενος ἐκ τῶν Πλάτωνος καὶ Ἀριστοτέλους λειμώνων — "having gathered them from the meadows of Plato and Aristotle.". Indeed, by this gift, he both placed Philosophy as if upon an Imperial throne and surpassed the generosity of others by as great a distance as the truest treasures of the soul—that is, the discoveries of wisdom—surpass the mere goods of fortune.

But let this be said with all due respect to Themistius. In the previous century, JOHANN WEYER, a native of Grave Johann Weyer (1515–1588) was a Dutch physician and occultist, famous for being one of the first to argue that "witches" were actually suffering from mental illness rather than being in league with the devil., a Physician and Philosopher most learned in all things, fashioned a garland in the Garden of Wisdom from the elegance of all possible crowns. This garland was far more blooming in beauty, more pleasing in grace, and more lasting in its permanence. He did not create it for some Prince, but for TRUTH and for the HEALTH of both body and soul. For while he plucks old grandmothers (to speak with the poet Persius) from the lungs original Latin: "veteres avias... de pulmone revellit." This is a quote from the Roman satirist Persius (Satires 5.92), serving as a metaphor for tearing away deep-seated, irrational superstitions and "old wives' tales" from the very core of a person., by uncovering the frauds of the devil and his minions,