Michaelis Maieri viatorium, hoc est, de montibus planetarum septem, seu metallorum

TO THE READER.

tavit

t, ut SI

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To have had a path woven with blind walls, and an ambiguous
Trick with a thousand paths, where the signs of following
Would fail the undiscovered and irretrievable error.

This, like a prison, held the captives, who suffered no harm, except that, deceived by the complexity of the paths, they could not escape from there. It is said that the Egyptian Labyrinth was built by King Miris and the Cretan by Minos with Daedalus as the workman, with magnificent works, over a long time, with inexpressible labor, for no other reason than to make the most abundant riches of their authors attested to posterity, along with their eternal memory. In this way, a most complex Labyrinth is noticed to have been founded and built up by various authors in natural philosophy, into which, whoever falls, can scarcely or very rarely ever extricate themselves. I mean the chemical books, by which the intricate