Prudentes.

The Wise.

Iane bifrons, qui transacta futuraque calles,
Quique retro sannas sicut & antè vides, [1]
Tot te cur oculis, tot fingunt vultibus? an quòd
Circunspectum hominem forma fuisse docet?

Two-headed Janus, you know about what has already happened and what is yet to come, you see the jeering faces behind just as you see them in front. Why do they represent you with so many eyes, why with so many faces? Is it because this form tells us that you were a man of circumspection?

Antiquissima quaeque commentitia.

The oldest things are all invented

Pallenaee Senex, cui forma est histrica proteu,[1]
Qui modò membra viri fers, modò membra feri [=ferae] .
Dic age quae species ratio te vertit in omnes
Nulla sit ut vario certa figura tibi?
Signa vetustatis, primaevi & praefero secli:[2]
De quo quisque suo somniat arbitrio.

Proteus, old man of Pallene, whose outward appearance changes like an actor’s, assuming sometimes the body of a man, sometimes that of a beast, come, tell me, what is your reason for turning into all kinds of shapes, so that you have no permanent form as you constantly alter? I offer symbols of antiquity and the very first times, concerning which everyone dreams up what he will.