PRÆFATIO.

Ornamental woodcut drop cap 'M' features scrolling acanthus leaves and a floral motif.does the imbecility of human Reason measure these things by itself through a miserable attribution of Subtility? To whom is the knowledge of the movement and approach of Iron to the Herculean stone original: "Herculeum lapidem"; referring to the magnet so admirable and so desperate? And what of the nature of Garlic, by the mere breath of which that admirable power perishes, and that conversion toward the Pole? Why does the most immense of beasts, the Lion, shudder at the sight of a Rooster? Why is the Elephant, whom weapons and siege engines could hardly move from battle, turned to flight by the squeal of the most squalid of beasts, the Pig? But if we turn the eyes of the Mind into the vast Element of the Waters, how many enormous miracles overwhelm the observer everywhere? From the various and unusual monsters of the deep! From which the Sea must be navigated by one who wishes to narrate its dangers, as persuaded by the Hebrew Sage original: "Syrac. cap. 43."; Sirach 43. You will marvel at the mass of mute, voiceless aquatic creatures, or whether wit or hidden Powers were endowed upon them! Are you stunned by the arcane force of the Torpedo original: "Torpedinis"; the electric ray or the sea hare? What of that little fish, a foot or a foot and a half long, which the Latins called Remora delaying fish, the Greeks Naucrates ship-ruler or Echeneis ship-holder, from the fact that it holds and keeps the ship original: "ἀπὸ τοῦ κρατεῖν καὶ ἔχειν τὴν ναῦν"? By what leagues do they leave behind all the prodigies reported in histories? What is more vast or