De venis mesaraicis obstructis ipsarumque ita affectarum curatione Theses sive Pronunciata LX

and produces infinite kinds of crudities and obstructions as if they were the seminaries of all diseases, I do not think that you will ever say that this little consideration of mine on mesaraic obstructions is untimely, or judge it to be more than small. Nay, it cannot be that the subject is not most necessary; yet it will perhaps seem lighter for that reason, since it fell to a hungry patron who did not know how to adorn or amplify it sufficiently as the situation demanded. I would have preferred that the whole business, however much it might be, had been assigned to others who would take it up and finish it much more laudably. But since your—nay, my, nay, rather the friend of both—the most adorned Dean of the College of Physicians, Dr. Theodore Zwinger, and that great man Dr. Felix Plater (what and how great men are they?), have dragged me (as if a most unskilled swimmer into a torrent of elephants) into this Apollonian wrestling ground, I have something with which to excuse myself. Yet I did not wish to fail their request in any way, nor could I by right if I wished to, because they were demanding this of me in the name of the whole College; to which I have entrusted myself entirely, as much by hand and oath as especially by spirit, and I will always defend and increase its honor as long as I live. Behold, sweetest man, how familiarly, as I am accustomed, I have poured these things into your bosom. I could have accommodated myself to a graver style, but your manners and our custom do not allow me to do so. For, as Marcus Tullius Cicero writes to his brother Quintus, who was administering the proconsulate of Asia, when I read yours, I seem to hear you; when I write to you, I seem to speak with you. Nay, as Seneca did with his Lucilius when he was absent, I dine with you, I walk with you. Do you wish me to say? As Cicero did with Balbus, who was fighting in Gaul, so I carry my most learned Penneius (alas, situated too far away) not only in my mind, but in my eyes and even on my lips; indeed, I have my father and fatherland, my city and fellow citizens, and their very eyes fixed on my own eyes; for strongly indeed—I do not know if this is said more by Seneca or Plato—Pallas, Evander, and Diana are all in their very eyes.