honest expectation, you will but lend me your thankefull mynde a
while: and, to such matter as, for this time, my penne (with spede) is
hable to deliuer, apply your eye or eare attentifely: perchaunce, at
once, and for the first salutyng, this Preface you will finde a lesson
long enough. And either you will, for a second (by this) be made much
the apter: or shortly become, well hable your selues, of the lyons claw,
to coniecture his royall symmetrie, and farder propertie. Now then,
gentle, my frendes, and countrey men, Turne your eyes, and bend your
myndes to that doctrine, which for our present purpose, my simple talent
is hable to yeld you.

All thinges which are, & haue beyng, are found vnder a triple diuersitie
generall. For, either, they are demed Supernaturall, Naturall, or, of a
third being. Thinges Supernaturall, are immateriall, simple,
indiuisible, incorruptible, & vnchangeable. Things Naturall, are
materiall, compounded, diuisible, corruptible, and chaungeable. Thinges
Supernaturall, are, of the minde onely, comprehended: Things Naturall,
of the sense exterior, ar hable to be perceiued. In thinges Naturall,
probabilitie and coniecture hath place: But in things Supernaturall,
chief demonstration, & most sure Science is to be had. By which
properties & comparasons of these two, more easily may be described, the
state, condition, nature and property of those thinges, which, we before
termed of a third being: which, by a peculier name also, are called
_Thynges Mathematicall_. For, these, beyng (in a maner) middle, betwene
thinges supernaturall and naturall: are not so absolute and excellent,
as thinges supernatural: Nor yet so base and grosse, as things naturall:
But are thinges immateriall: and neuerthelesse, by materiall things
hable somewhat to be signified. And though their particular Images, by
Art, are aggregable and diuisible: yet the generall _Formes_,
notwithstandyng, are constant, vnchaungeable, vntransformable, and
incorruptible. Neither of the sense, can they, at any tyme, be perceiued
or iudged. Nor yet, for all that, in the royall mynde of man, first
conceiued. But, surmountyng the imperfection of coniecture, weenyng and
opinion: and commyng short of high intellectuall conception, are the
Mercurial fruite of _Dianoeticall_ discourse, in perfect imagination
subsistyng. A meruaylous newtralitie haue these thinges _Mathematicall_,
and also a straunge participation betwene thinges supernaturall,
immo