Singular Antipathies, or a Dissertation on the Natural but Miraculous Loathing, Hatred, and Abstinence from Food and Drink

Medical observations testify that they were eventually able to take back, endure, digest, and process [concoct] these things once more: for in all times, people have been found for whom that which was once most unpleasant became, in the course of their life, most pleasing. Thus, as they grew old, they were able to eat certain foods with great pleasure and even greater benefit, which as youths they could scarcely look at, taste, or swallow without certain danger to life and body. And that is all.

The hour flees; the day hastens; fleeting time has passed; original: Aufugit hora; dies properat; tempus præterijt fugax. A common poetic sentiment on the brevity of life and the speed of academic oratory.
—Let the piercing cold of the North Wind scorch. original: Borea penetrabile frigus adurat. A quote from Virgil’s Georgics (1.93), referring to the harshness of nature.

I ask this at least of you, Listeners, that if anything is found in the matters or words used by me that is less suitable or wrongly placed, you would forgive it:

Forgive, I pray, a man most ready to forgive; whatever error has been committed was done through human frailty and from memory original Greek: καὶ μνημονικῶς (kai mnemonikos). The author is admitting he may have quoted from memory rather than checking every source. out of the slenderness of my small talent:

Consider that in great things, to have willed the attempt is enough: original: Cogitate in magnis voluisse sat esse. A reference to the Roman poet Propertius, suggesting that even if the work is imperfect, the ambition to tackle a difficult subject is praiseworthy.

Consider that the works of GOD are unsearchable, full of incredible wonder, and we humans are far too unequal to such great things: Take notice; it is a part of human science original: scientia. In the 17th century, this referred to organized knowledge or a branch of learning rather than modern experimental science. and wisdom to be content to not know certain things. We are but men; and as men, we were born to know few things, certainly not everything; nor even to know those few things with absolute certainty.

But if I have erred, I have provided a beginning of wisdom and knowledge to others—firstly, so that they may inquire into these matters more accurately, and secondly, so that, warned by my error (if there be any), they may not be deceived further, nor deceive others. Some will owe me thanks for this, but I shall owe even greater thanks to those who kindly extricate me from this Charybdis In Greek mythology, Charybdis was a dangerous whirlpool. Here, Lipsius uses it as a metaphor for a treacherous or confusing intellectual problem. and teach me better things. But I take my hand from the tablet. original: manum de tabulâ. A Latin idiom meaning "the work is finished" or "to stop polishing the painting."