PREFACE.

security, which deceives as many as possible. Since, therefore, prudence has always and everywhere been held in great value by every endowed intellect and praised as a virtue fitting for men, while security has been blamed as a light vice of women, why should we not prefer happy prudence and foresight over unhappy security? The wise man wishes for ants to be an example to us, that we may learn to imitate them, for they look out for the food necessary for the winter season by laboring and gathering during the summer months. The little bees do the same, and most other beasts, and even the mice themselves, for all of whom winter food is of such great care that in the summer time they extend their cavities and little caverns with the remaining abundance of crops and fruits in the field, which would otherwise perish there if left behind. But we humans are so slothful and negligent that the little creatures themselves could put us to the blush and shame, saying: You imprudent and sluggish men, do not be ashamed to learn the administration of household affairs from us, small as we are. But pride, the forerunner of a worse and unhappier fall, by no means permits the greater to use the lesser as a teacher. Nevertheless, for the honor of God, the Magistrate, and our Fatherland, and for the benefit of my neighbor, I have attempted with good advice and useful information to show how in these times, still prosperous, in which grain,