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

labyrinths that no one is enlightened by it. Take note that difficulties only bring troubles. Diversities corrupt the unique existence of truth, which is simple and easy to those who know it, but infinitely far from those who are ignorant of it. The smallest and most abject artifice practiced by the most ignorant of artisans is extremely difficult to one who does not know it at all. Even the wise admire trifles despised by the least among them. If this is seen continually, what then shall be said of our subject, which is so many times admirable, useful, and necessary? It is certain that God has not given the affection for science to make the spirit enter into troubles and perplexities. But the human spirit, distrusting the grace of the Sovereign, vainly plunges without cause into subjects where it ought to intervene with patience and humility to glorify its Maker. This not being the case, and the spirit often pushing itself by impetuous desires for illegitimate causes, it happens through the force of error that one stumbles into the gulf of vanities. This is because one has voluntarily tripped against the reef of presumption. Now, the Holy One having given science to make the spirit clean through events, he communicates the principles of it to his own to establish their soul in perfect habit. To do this, he grants the organ of worldly organs, not to all, but to those who, through the happy meeting of the effects of wisdom, arrive at this desirable point. But not all eyes are capable of seeing this beautiful secret, which has no defined goal other than perfection. And certainly, God did not give the affection for science to put the spirit in troubles and diversities of confusion, but rather to make it clear and susceptible to all agreeable and just forms. The effects he permits to good souls are to establish them in their best subsistence. To reach this, one must proceed by straight and perfect means. Hold this as a constant resolution: perfection is not known by a constrained order, leading to some forced goal by intolerable involvements, but by the necessary and legitimate one, which is equitable. Therefore, nothing must be ruined to establish, nor anything excellent spoiled to restore it. For it is not reasonable to trouble in order to clarify, to kill in order to vivify, or to bully in order to tame. It is necessary to develop in order to find, to excite in order to stir up, and at least in appearance, to make the greatest truth melt. it is not the fruit that is in question to be desolated, but, if it can be said, it is the seed that must be agitated and made to corrupt, so that it may rise afterward in fruits much more desirable than it seemed. If, then, you desire to faithfully accomplish the desire of your effecting affection, consider the perfect substances and those that tend toward perfection: those that movement does not alter, and those that are alterable, even in a moment. Make a choice of what is in

alterable power of this nature, which requires being moved to be drawn out of its manifest deprivation of what it shows it desires with all appearance. Let this be a seal upon your soul, so that you are not found defective before the eyes of Olocliree, who values only accomplished spirits. Since she is the only point of your desires and the only one in your heart, have that heart full enough of worth to understand and practice. Do not think of going to her to be led by her to her own enjoyment; understand where she is from, and from there you can find the means to go to her, and from her, you will reach the most excellent point. And although she is the unique excellence, she is only known by the King who will be born of her, and by the beautiful Queen of whom she will also be the mother, if effort is made. She is truly their mother, since she is their soul and perfect form in two of her terms. For as soon as she is at the beginning of her adolescence, she can be the mother of the Queen. Then, having come to a perfect age, and when she is in the truth of her greatest beauty, she will be able to give birth to the King, who is the little King of the world. Now, therefore, to arrive at this Great Good, pass by the house of the mother of Olocliree to see her first essence. Take note of a notable point: children who are beautiful at the beginning, whose beauty is so praised, are nothing in the end. This beauty fades and perishes, and finally, they are nothing but figures of ugliness. It is otherwise with Olocliree. Her first birth is ugly. She has only the coarse features of what she must be. But if she is excited and nourished by the external agent that amplifies the interior, she will beautify herself from time to time, until she is beautiful in every extremity. If this essence is once known to you, you would know that she perfects herself without dividing anything. For nature never intends this actually, but formally, separating the ugly to add the beautiful, to diminish the unpleasant in order to increase the agreeable, preserving the whole and multiplying the virtue. For the effect of this, nothing is disjointed, nothing is parted or separated, although erased. In fact, accidents are not separated but erased, since they vanish and diminish nothing of the quantity of which they would have been parts if they had been separated. To separate means to set aside and, as it were, to disjoint, which is to be avoided. For by disjunction, one unties the specific and natural bonds, which can never be restored nor others put in their place. What is once cut can no longer be resoldered to become one as before. What is disjointed by nature cannot be included in unity such as nature makes through its operations, because the solution of continuity is never re-established in its first being. Because of the cutting, since the slit is made, there is