Fridrichstadt Leisure, or the Chemical Tantalus

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and his clemency. Just as He is the victor and conqueror of the Turks, so may your Society, together with its best members, cast an ever greater light of all-encompassing erudition day by day, and lead the Medical Art to its most perfect state. May the supreme Divinity grant this! Fare well, and favor me, who am Your most devoted servant, Nestor II. Fridrichstadt, 1717. May 19th, on the day of Mercury ☿, at the first hour of the afternoon.

Preface.

A large ornamental drop cap letter 'Q' begins the text, set within a square frame featuring floral and scrollwork designs.
Since the most benevolent God has placed us humans in this most beautiful Theater of the world, in which, as many as are the Creatures in the three Kingdoms of the World, and as many as are the stars shining in the sky, and as many as are the phenomena of meteors, just as many most eloquent tongues address man, the inhabitant of the world: "By looking at me, celebrate your God and mine, the Creator; honor and adore with a devoted mind. Scrutinize my nature, for I am a treasury chest of wondrous gifts with which I adorn this spectacular theater and serve you." Therefore, anyone of sound mind understands what the duty of a man, placed in this most beautiful theater, is. Especially for this purpose did God endow man, the most excellent of all creatures, with genius and intellect, so that he might use both for the honor of God, by researching the wondrous works of God. And since there are innumerable objects of genius and intellect, all these are also so arranged that, if we institute an anatomy of them, we are forced to confess: this is the finger of God. The Magi in Egypt, Jannes and Jambres, when they could not stop the lice, but they were produced by Moses, burst out into these words: this is the finger of God! We, as often as we see some tiny little animal even in the family of insects, rightly say, this is the finger of God! For this little animal, both in itself, in its structure, in its figure, and in its organs of sense, and the disposition of other parts, proclaims God's omnipotence and wisdom, and blares out the praises of its Creator. The structure of insects has enticed and inflamed the minds of many learned men to understand their nature, as the Commentaries they have written about insects prove. Jungius's papers deserve reading here. Blancardus, while he lived, the pride of the Dutch physicians, and one who deserved very well of the Medical Republic by his writings,