Anatomy or the Interior of Things

The royal virtue of the kingly mind was surely increased, not diminished, by the gift of fortune; the virtue by which you have learned to temper that formidable splendor of countenance with such a marvelous approach of gentleness and clemency that no one has ever approached your presence so fearfully that they did not depart strengthened. Therefore, setting aside my fear, I proceed directly to the sacred seat of Your Majesty, bearing a little book once conceived in Dutch, but now edited in Latin for the use of foreigners. Kneeling down with submissive veneration, I place it upon your footstool, so that if I provide any light to others with it, the same may be referred back to your munificence, from which it was kindled.