Myographia nova sive Muscolorum omnium (in copore humano hactenus repertorum) accuratissima descripto, in...

as much as there is, I willingly acknowledge that it proceeds from your Anatomical Repository. Specifically, however, I ought to be considered and heard as the most ungrateful of mortals if I wished to defraud the most Excellent and famous Dr. Croune William Croune, a prominent 17th-century physician of his praise and acclaim, for his outstanding goodwill toward me and the friendly help he provided in discovering the almost new world of the muscles. I therefore confess that I owe to that great man, who often guided me through the darkness, as much as one man can owe another in the compiling of this work, and so much so that it is clearly a matter of doubt for me, when I think about it more closely, which I should admire first or more vehemently: his absolutely incredible learning, or his loyalty, friendship, and humanity.

I will say in a word that I have displayed, in a single Table as it were, whatever I could add from ancient and modern Anatomy regarding the Doctrine of the Muscles through personal autopsy original: "autopsiæ" - meaning here direct observation or personal dissection and experience, so that I might lighten the burden for the busy, delight the beginners, and in general be useful to all.

Now, however, it remains only for me to bid you farewell, since you are the sons of Physicians, and to surpass others by the example of your own health.

To the Excellent Mr. JOHN BROWNE on his Myographia.

Whatever men do; the labors of the tongue and the right hand,
Which the brain, the face, which the arms, and the eyes perform,
The legs, the feet, the fingers, the chest, your page encompasses.
What are the laws of labor in the members of your kingdom?
You paint the most clear gifts of the sluggish flesh,
And you show the red fragments of the body, macerated with better clay,
Adapted to the sublime duties of life,
And since the small, soft parts and the thick, graceful muscles
Are powerful in the human body,
Between the fibers, and in the ailing arches,
You show the causes of things hidden and closed,
And you, like a constant companion to Phoebus Apollo, god of the sun and healing, will travel
Through all the tracts of the muscles, through the separated realms,
And the immense fields of Fame, for centuries to come.

He who tempers the human muscles in the varied limbs,
And moves the cunning members with diligent wheels;
Who permits in one way, and now runs the loose reins,
And completes every space according to your will;
Who provides the causes for standing, and the causes for sitting,
And soon lies supine upon the green earth;
O Muse, that man, stripped of darkness by your art,
Now owes you, Browne, an inextinguishable day.
He had once traveled to victory in his fatherland:
When new labor shone in the English world.
You now surpass yourself, Browne, in the Medical Arena,
And you serve the best wines widely in the Cask.
Proceed as you have begun, to hand over new gifts
To the learned ages; and to scatter donations with an assiduous hand:
Thus may the coming times give you worthy thanks,
And a long Laurel crown your deserving hair.

Once the things and the poet, full of the very Divinity,
Observing the hidden seeds of the corporeal mass,
Was stunned; sudden terror struck his heart;
Nor could the miracles be spoken well for him.
Finally, with a wonderful right hand, he said, and with trembling art,
The living Machine of the Human World was crafted:
He spoke, and astonished, he fell silent.
But if the Work of the Divine Alcimedon a legendary mythological craftsman is seen
To have joined such discordant limbs in such just ways;
What glory, Browne! is owed to your right hand,
Which with the knife opens the path through all the limbs of life and motion,
Showing why each part was created.