Le tableau des riches inventions qui sont representees dans le songe de Poliphile

with all subjects. If it is melted with molten glass, it tints it. With metal, it does the same. It penetrates everything and even dissolves into human humors, having entry everywhere to rectify all substances. This philosophical glass an alchemical substance that transforms others into its own nature has power over all natures. It brings them to its own nature, fulfilling them with all perfections. Such are the loves of Olocliree the name of the beloved, likely meaning 'Entire Glory' or 'Total Inheritance' and the grace of her sweet enjoyment. She takes infinite pleasure there. Seeing herself in her beautiful mirrors, she ordains infinite delights according to the species that the great Phecesy Nature has determined by the reason of all that the holy Archee the vital or formative principle of nature has permitted her to treat. These mirrors will be the eternal symbol of your fidelities and the unique guide of your loves. These small filaments of silk, which seem spun by the Nymphs of love, are these beautiful threads of glass. They are the admirable sources of the magnificent golden branches that cast shade at the entrance of the arbor where Love rests and where our unique Olocliree retires. Be firm and remember, or learn, that the heart of wisdom is in Constancy. Do not go like a man of vanities, following the various detours of impudent loves that are easy to approach and easy to enjoy. Instead, pursue that which withdraws little by little. What is chaste does not wish to be profane. Hold yourself vividly to the unique Branch of Destiny original: "Rinceau du Destin". This is the fatal and good branch that multiplies felicities, substances, and delights without repentance. If you stop sometimes to take breath, and you take heed of the Xantisophilles likely "wisdom-flowers," referring to botanical wall decorations of the walls and paintings herein, you will recognize there all the steganography secret writing or hidden science and delicate knowledge. It contains within itself the most beautiful secrets of love and the most delicious encounters practiced with the excellent Olocliree. With her, one finds and perceives all happiness without displeasure, all grace without weariness, and convenience without interval. Everything lies in one point, one place, one subject, one knowledge, and one single key, beyond which no other is useful. There is only one means. Once a person is informed of it even slightly, they are capable of everything that depends on it. Through a little intelligence, one understands and knows almost everything. If it happens that someone, either by chance or by diligence, casts an eye upon the blessed polish of Olocliree’s beautiful mirror, they enter into so many perfect understandings through this faithful vision that all obscurity retreats from them. Everything that can be revealed to the human spirit is imagined in the reflections of such perfect glass, the mother of the most beautiful of all sciences. This is where all faithful lovers must aspire. Being able to see themselves again in this reflecting light, they will read all that is intelligible there. They will easily go from one thing to others. Finally, having looked at themselves in the seven mirrors, they will be assured of their hopes, certain of the state of their desires, and content with the enjoyment of the good grace of Olocliree. Because of the

good she infuses into their spirits, her true lovers are very often called prophets. This is because they visibly perceive everything. In such a glorious habit, their souls are called bodies and their bodies souls. One is the other, and the other is the one. Their souls are one soul, the unique soul is many souls, one body is the bodies, the body is many bodies. How much pleasure I had in hearing these beautiful enigmas, these sophisms of the wise. My heart was dilated within me to apprehend so many future delights proposed to good courages. There is no joy so abundant, no contentment so glorious, nor glory so magnificent as to find oneself in such a state. Already it seemed to me that I was happily fluttering above all joy of heart. This is where the great artifice of the Ladies and the secret of secrets of love is found. It punishes those who do not know how to recognize good and who are so abused by their good fortune that, forgetting where their advantage comes from, they think only of the satiation of their desires. Nephés the personification of the soul or breath saw me, considering my own benefit and not the honor of what caused it. To make me feel what is of duty, she used an artifice on me. By its events, this will be an example to all curious people. Certainly, I must say it, for my nature, inclined to courtesy, obliges me more than anything. I advance then to repeat again that there is nothing better under the Sun than beautiful ladies. They are the happiness of the World, the masterpiece of God, and the abundance of counsel that one must follow to never repent. But here one must take a draft of prudence. If one wants counsel from a Lady, one must make the proposal very simple and slightly tending toward what might touch her. Why should I not say this, seeing that the old proverb makes good sons resemble their mothers and wise daughters their fathers? Let there be no controversy for the dignity of Ladies, and especially here where they are the subject of our designs and our happiness. Because they know it, they have infinite beautiful inventions to make us find it even better. Who would want to debate with us on this subject? Is science not a Lady? Are the virtues not Ladies? Is it not also our intention to have these beautiful objects as our goal, under the agreeable similarities of what God has made for human recreation? This is how we go wandering after excellence. Ladies who have judgment and want to remain in their acquired greatness know how to multiply their glory to the disadvantage of our heart, and by our fault. Yet, coming from their part, they use it with such good grace, softened by the features and sweetness of beauty, that nothing of our reputation is lost. To be gently deceived by a wise Lady makes a Knight only more worthy. It is his honor. It is a sign that he is in the grace of the beautiful. For those to whom they give the most obstacles without offense are those for