FOREWORD OF THE AUTHOR

To the sincere and gentle reader!

The encouragement of a good friend led us in a marvelous manner to the composition of this work. It is conceived not as our presentation of certain knowledge to the world, but rather as material for our future intimate conversations.

Because the first volume of this work was made public against our will, we thought it wise to add the second and third volumes for the sake of completeness, certain that the complete work, with extensive corrections to the first volume, will be well received. We did not write this book for the sake of fame or thanks, but rather for the pleasure of the reader, and that he should find in these pages that which the wisdom of God has imparted to us. And we are certain that God-fearing men will read this book with blessed pleasure. So too, the mago-cabbalist and theosopher will easily see that it is not the intent of this work to teach the reader how to make gold. Rather, we aim for something much higher, namely how we can see and recognize nature in God and God in nature and how our true and pure service to the Creator as a sacrifice of thanks flows from this knowledge. However, a student of true natural chemistry will also find here guidance in following the true ways of nature, and how to avoid wrong turns on this journey. We have described these things as clearly as possible, so that a reader who approaches it with an honest mind will understand what we are trying to say. We occasionally make use of cabbalistic symbols in our book, which will not be difficult to decipher for those experienced in such things. We also use various alchemical symbols, terms and phrasings, which we hope the reader will not find distasteful. We ourselves find that they express more clearly and understandably what we are trying to say and present things in a more natural way than traditional metaphysical terms typically do. With this we conclude our foreword and commend our work to the enlightened and God-fearing reader.

The Author
The 4th of January 1721