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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [C1v p18]

DE DIEU VIENT LE SCAVOIR
des effects de nature.

QUel mystere couvert esmeut plus la pensée?
Quel secret ravit plus de miracles nos sens?
Que l’oeuvre de Nature es deux globes puissans,[1]
Et du grand Univers en la forme ajancée?

Tu peines pour neant, la raison balancée
Au poids d’humain discours, perd ce que tu en sens
Philosophe pippé: Nature a ses presens
Inscrutables, couvert [=] , mesme aux yeux de Lyncée.[2]

La sage Antiquité, qui artistement sceut
Imager le pourtrait de ce qu’elle conceut,
Peignit d’un drap obscur la Nature voilée.

Dieu qui sçait ses effects, Dieu seul sage, & puissant,
Fera de son sçavoir le juste joüyssant
Lors que de sa prison sera l’ame esvolée.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [C2r p19]

Ad Alardum Quintulum Narniensem.[3]

Velo latet abdita

She hides secrets with a veil

Two figures sitting either side of statue on a stepped plinth with greek inscription and burning torches on each side. City in background.
[Click on image to enlarge]

NAturam antiqui velo obnupsere, negantes
Quem quam huius solidâ cognitione frui.
Quae dabitur postquam terrestres spiritus artus
Linquet; & a caeco carcere liber erit.

The ancients obscured Nature with a veil, denying anyone to enjoy it/her with complete understanding, which will be given after the spirit leaves our earthly limbs and is free of its blind prison.

Notes:

1.  The pictura here shows Nature as Cybele, with an inscription on the pedestal of the statue, ‘Suriae’, in reference to her as goddess of Syria.

2.  Lynceus, one of the Argonauts, known for his fine sight.

3.  Alardus Quintulus, from Narni in Umbria, a lawyer friend of Boissard’s.

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