To the Most Serene

CESARE D'ESTE

DUKE OF MODENA,

REGGIO, etc.

Since, Most Serene Prince original: Serenissime Princeps. A standard honorific for a high-ranking noble like the Duke of Modena., we all must die, and like water we are poured out upon the earth, which does not return, as that wise woman said A reference to 2 Samuel 14:14 in the Bible: "For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again." The "wise woman" is the woman of Tekoa.; and nevertheless the use of this light original: lucis huius. A metaphor for life itself. is so pleasing and precious that anyone strives with the greatest strength and effort to preserve it as long as they can; and shrinks from and flees its loss—which is death original: interitus—with a terrible dread arising from an innate instinct, as if from some ultimate cruelty: God, or Nature original: natura optima. The author personifies Nature as a "best and wisest parent," a common philosophical framing in the early modern period., that best and wisest parent, has by His kindness so tempered and softened this harsh necessity for us, and has bestowed such a remedy, that although some, as is right, satisfy this inescapable law by departing from this life, they nevertheless continue to live,