THE PREFACE
to the gentle Reader.
The excellencie of nomber. Although nomber be infinite in increasyng: so that there is not in all the worlde, any thing that can excede the quantitie of it: Nother the grasse on the ground, nother the droppes of water in the sea, no not the small graines of Sande through the whole masse of the yearth: yet maie it seme by good reason, that noe man is so experte in Arithmetike, that can nōber the commodities of it. Wherefore I maie truely saie, that if any imperfection bee in nomber, it is bicause that nomber, can scarsely nomber, the commodities of it self. For the moare that any experte man, doeth weigh in his mynde the benifites of it, the more of them shall he see to remain behinde. And so shall he well perceiue, that as nomber is infinite, so are the commodities of it as infinite. And if any thyng doe or maie exceade the whole worlde, it is nomber, whiche so farre surmounteth the measure of the worlde, that if there were infinite worldes, it would at the full cōprehend them all. This nomber also hath other prerogatiues, aboue all naturalle thynges, for neither is there certaintie in any thyng without it, nother good argremente where it wanteth. Whereof no man can doubte, that hath been accustomed in the Bookes of Plato, Aristotell, and other aunciente Philosophers, where he shall see, how thei search all secrete knowledge and hid misteries, by the aide of nomber. For not onely the constitution of the whole worlde, dooe thei referre to nomber, but also the composition ofman,
