EPISTOLA Letter

...who have put forth the greatest effort in the consideration of things (for it is a base mind that wishes to attack those to whom you owe much in unworthy ways), but because I am highly eager to drag subterranean things out of those shadows in which they are buried and bring them into the light. If this succeeds less for me in some places than I desire in my wish to help posterity, it must be attributed to the obscurity with which nature has enshrouded these things, just as she has many others that she has hidden deeply in the earth. I wish to dedicate these books of mine, written four years ago, to your name, Prince of the Fatherland, both because they come to you by hereditary right, as I previously promised your relatives, and because it is not fitting, when you have given me a benefit so readily, that I should not return grace to you as much as I can. You have recently given me, such is your kindness, the immunity of my house and exemption from public duty, so that I might apply all my thought and care to the study of philosophy and medicine, in which I am engaged. And if you find these books themselves welcome and acceptable, others, similarly dedicated to your name, will be brought into the light, in which I have pursued the natures of these same things. Farewell. Chemnitz, on the Kalends of March, in the year 1544.