Philosophical Scrutiny of the True Elixir of Life

Most Excellent, and Most Illustrious Nobles of Styria: for what had spent such a great span of time in the shadows certainly stood in need of the most serene light, so that it could shine more and more, and be opened more easily to the minds of men. Since you shine marvelously with these rays of light, the splendor of your marvelous virtues, your most rare authority, and your most acute minds will, without any doubt, put to flight far away and push far off these shadows that have obscured this science after the death of Theophrastus, and will finally introduce the desired light, so that even those "darkeners" who desire to seem learned, and nevertheless [understand nothing of] this art,