PREFACE

but as a student and consultant, as if placing myself for an honest examination before friends and the excellent doctrine adorned by testimony. I ask, however, that they do not disdain to respond to this dialogue. For thus the hoped-for progress will emerge. My mind also anticipates that there will be some who will say that I have been too much in declarations through external documents: that every practice ought to have been proposed in their opinion nakedly, distinctly, and in the most childish manner, so that even those who have never seen even a single element of chemistry could have understood the matter thoroughly and spent their time in reading with profit. To others, I will be too obscure and mystical, just as there are those who complain that they cannot understand my previous writings for the same reason. And yet, the artisans will accuse me of having openly prostituted the art. Know, however, my censors, that I am conversing here familiarly with the learned. For their comprehension, I was not to present anything too rancid and plebeian, but something a little sharper. And nothing should be granted to amusements. For an epistle does not carry as much rigor as mere precepts. Therefore, I have indulged more freely in the contemplation of physical things. If you complain about obscurity, you are unjust. For I added a commentary from the apparatus of nature and the workshop, so that I might not only show the sources, but teach them more evidently. If you have not attained natural things; you are not yet fit for chemical works. Learn physics before ἐγχειρήσεις manual operations/techniques chemical.