Dedication to Elias Ashmole; the preface

To the most excellently Accomplish't, The onely Philosopher in the present age: The Honoured, Noble, Learned, ELIAS ASHMOLE, Esq.

SIR,

SO few and precious is that number of the sons of wisdom, which the Creator (as so many Jewels) hath laid up in his Treasury from the beginning, for the adornation of the World, as that more then one cannot be afforded to stand as a Golden Candlestick for the holding forth that Lucerna Dei to the sons of men, by the light whereof the most reclused Mysteries, both naturall and divine, may in some measure (such as is fit for us to know while we remain in these earthly tabernacles) be discovered to those diligent & humble seekers who make it their business to search after the knowledge of the Creator in the works his hands have made.

That this was the principall end and design of the divine goodness in bestowing your selfe upon the world, we are fully convinced by those Scintillations which our eyes (dim as they are) have seen darted from that uxor solis which hath its habitation in your breast: and although we should be frustrate of our ends in the present design, tis an happiness great enough that we have lived at such a time, and in such a place as hath given us the opportunity to know and be acquainted with a man in whose bosome God hath so abundantly stored up the treasures of all sorts of wisdom and knowledge. The main of our wishes are that we may so acquit our selves as that you may hav[…] no cause to repent of those kindnesses and respects wherewith you have or shall honour

Your servants, N. L. T. S. H. S.

The Preface.

THe Goddess Themis after the Deluge being asked of Deucalion and Pyrrha, how Mankind swept away with the overflowing of the Waters, should again be restored and multiplied, commanded them to throw over their heads the Bones of their Great Mother: the which Oracle they rightly interpreted concerning the stones of the Earth, and thereby attained their desired end; For which cause Themis was afterwards accounted the first Promulgatrix of Laws. But without doubt Her answer was not thus understood by the ancient Poets, who supposed that she rather meant that Mankind was generated by two stones, the Male, and the Female, whence proceeds the wonderfull multiplication of that Golden Medicine: For the Man Deucalion, and his Wife Pyrrha are the Gabritius and Beia, the Sun and the Moon, which two by projection of their Specifick stones can multiply even to a thousand. Pyrrha within is ruddy, not unlike the colour of Flesh, although Her outward garments are white, and some have named Her according to her cloathing: Deucalion is a Lyon, not in body, but spiritually; not in shape, but operation; because He is so cruell to his Wife that he kils her, and then bewraps her with his bloody mantle. But very few have attained the true knowledge of the Oracle; since most men apprehend it to be only an History, and thence draw some wholsome Morals, which here have no place, neither were they ever intended.

And now this Title is vindicated viz. why we call it the Golden Themis which I Dedicate to the Courteous Reader.

For seeing it is as much the Property of a man to reason, and judiciously to determine, as it essentially belongs to a bird to fly, or an horse to run and traverse the Fields; we would not impose on any, or seem to deprive them of their native freedome by captivating any ones Iudgement.

It is said of the whetstone, that being it selfe blunt, yet it sharpens other things; and though the Steele and flint have not actually fire in them, yet being struck against each other, they mutually send forth sparkes; give me leave (I pray thee) to apply. For if thou reapest any profit hereby, I shall think my self to have been serviceable.

Be Candid and Farewell.