Most High and Most Illustrious Prince, My

Lord Francois de Bourbon, Prince

of Conty. Sovereign of Chateau-Renaud, and

Lands beyond and on this side of the Meuse, Governor and

Lieutenant General of the King in the lands of Anjou,

Touraine, and Maine, etc.

My Lord,

Those who, driven by some lofty enterprise, carry
inconsiderately the vows of their constancy under the grave
image of many fantasies, give themselves nothing
less, in the invented excess of a spirit strong in speech,
than a firm assurance of all good and happy Success;
which nevertheless, having fallen from this prosperity
vainly sketched, are many times constrained to change
their purpose, and judge otherwise, by a disadvantage
promptly painted upon the lightness of immoderate
passions, which the sad event of this impression
had not promised; deploring at leisure the course of their
error conceived against the grain of the hope they had
imagined in a delicious sleep, when in the middle
of the Career, sailing without thinking into the highest
sea of their conceptions, one sees them carried off at the will of the
winds, as if by the waxed wings of some ambitious
Icarus; but on the condition that fighting under your authority,
and carrying off a happy victory over all
slanderers, it may please you to receive the spoils of this
trophy in satisfaction of my fidelity, which I will preserve
without end in the perpetual vows of your Royal perfections.

Prologue

Alphidius, with good reason esteemed one of the most
celebrated and commendable to Posterity among
the ancient and Wise Philosophers of his time,
proposes to us in his divine writings that the ordinary contemplation,
mysterious consideration, and continuous reading
of approved, renowned authors, sufficiently
recommended as such, and who have best
divinely treated this work, admirable and never
sufficiently praised, sung, nor revered by the
rarest spirits, who by curiosity worthy of such a Subject,
or by compassion for seeing so many blinded souls
consume their time therein, have very wisely deigned to
produce to the light some brilliant spark of the excellence
of our Lion who is known by his paw original: "Lyon qui Se connoit a la patte"; a proverb meaning a master is recognized by his work, for a pledge
only of the burning light they have drawn from it, or
to judge at least nearly of the precious stone
by the examination of this Sacred sample; this Wise,
I say, and foresighted doctor, says that the search for this
terrestrial Sun the Philosophers' Stone reports as much or more
fruit and contentment to the Nurslings learnedly raised
under the provident tutelage of this Superhuman
and doubtless celestial Science, amiably nourished by
the agreeable milk of its loving and savory breast;
as it can bring contempt and discontent to the
bizarre ears of those learned ignoramuses, who have not
their understanding sufficiently settled to judge it pertinently,
and understand the effect of a mystery so high, so grave, and