A decorative woodcut headpiece consisting of two rows of repeating typographic fleurons in a scrolling floral and heart-shaped pattern.

Preface to the

Reader.

I cannot but admire that the adversaries of Paracelsus, when they have no just slanders to throw at him, accuse him only of writing obscurely and of covering his secrets with made-up words. Just as the adversaries of Johannes Baptista Van Helmont do, by continually agitating and irritating him, they stimulate him to bring forth, into the light, the secrets acquired with much sweat and expense, and—willing or unwilling—to lay them bare to envious, gaping people without any gratitude. But those javelins which they have thrown at this eminent man should rightfully be turned back upon themselves. Nor can I fail to accuse Wierus the Physician, who, observing Paracelsus curing his patients almost miraculously—