Introduction to the Kabbalah

...having taken up this work of virtue. For if it consists in virtue, I do not see why it should be hindered by the wicked dominion of Fortune—which, nevertheless, is unable to tame virtue. On this account, Fortune seems to me to reign more widely than that common opinion allows; for it can easily be seen that my brother did not lack the virtue required to extend his distinguished fame, but rather he lacked the favor of Fortune. Although Fortune, through its adversity, did not allow him to hand down the fruits of his virtue to us, and deprived him of this light The "light" of life. in his very tender years, it still could not stand so much in the way of his virtue that he would not seem to me to have lived in this world for a very long time indeed; this is according to that famous exclamation of Cicero, in which he says that one day spent well and according to the precepts of philosophy is to be preferred almost to an entire immortality. original: "esse unum diem benè & ex praeceptis philosophiae actum toti penè anteponendum immortalitati." A reference to Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, 5.5.13.

Since I am conscious that his virtue deserves fame, I ought not to allow myself—lest I be blinder and more heartless than that very accidental event of his death—to permit these very remains of Fortune, and these books which are still worthy of being read by men and approved by the judgment of learned men, to perish entirely through my neglect. For I judge this to be a singular benefit bestowed by liberal and kind Mother Nature upon men endowed with brilliant genius: that she might grant them, after death in this life, their works and books—like a living statue of the mind A common Renaissance metaphor where a book is seen as a "monument" or "statue" that speaks to future generations, unlike a silent stone statue. conversing far and wide across the world with posterity—as a remedy for our inevitable mortality and a compensation for our passing. If any part of this gift perhaps still remains for my brother, it would be quite improper for him to be utterly robbed of it through my neglect.

Therefore, encouraged by the counsel of learned men, I thought this little book libellum|a "little book" or pamphlet, often used modestly by authors to describe their work should be published for you, kindest reader, as a memory of him and a monument to his life, until we can more accurately examine and prepare other works he composed on various disciplines. This book indeed, although to you, even if...