To Gustavus Selenus.

Most august of famous men,
most discreet of famous men,
most refined of famous men,
who, the time that others spend on ease and play,
the time that others spend on wine and love,
to study and to books of wisdom dost devote,
whereof so great a number have by thee been written
that to hold the titles only fixed in mind is labor vast, --
though, as a living library, art wise in Greek, and French,
and Spanish, and in Latin too, --
what things Greece anciently constructed,
what or Gallic speech or Latin,
what Italians wrote, or grave Iberians.
Hence, then, like a bee,
o’er flowering fields and wide-extending
vales of human and of sacred lore far-wandering,
dost thou draw, with study and with labor vast,
what all the world in wonder sees and cherishes,
what all the world refreshes and delights.
Hail, scion of the demi-gods,
hail most august of famous men,
most discreet of famous men,
most refined of famous men,
so much the more august in all to be,
through cultivation of instructed wisdom,
as ‘tis rare for the divinities of earth
and leaders of the world
to spend their time on books.

Melchior Breler,

Physician of the Author,

my most Clement Lord.