=Transcriber's notes:= In the section "To The Reader" our author writes: _There be, no doubt, some faults committed by the =Printer=, both Literall and Materiall, and some Errors of the =Gravers= in the =Figures=, (as in the =Tetragrammaton=; in the Figure of =Arîon=; and in the =Proprieties= due to some other =Hieroglyphicks=); but, for the most part, they are such, as =Common-Readers= will never perceive; and I thinke, that they who are =Judicious= will so plainly finde them to be no faults of mine; that, leaving them to be amended by those, to whom they appertaine; and, =You=, to accept of these =Play-games= as you please: I bid you =Farewell=._ Therefore all oddities and inconsistencies have been left unchanged. They have been noted at the end of the transcription. An addendum of transcriptions and translations of the mottoes engraved around each emblem has been added to the final note as a convenience to the reader. A PREPOSITION to this FRONTISPIECE. This BOOKE contayning EMBLEMS, ’twas thought fit, A _Title-page_ should stand to usher it, That’s Emblematicall: And, for that end, Our AVTHOR, to the _Graver_ did commend A plaine Invention; that it might be wrought, According as his Fancie had forethought. Insteed thereof, the _Workeman_ brought to light, What, here, you see; therein, mistaking quite The true _Designe_: And, so (with paines, and cost) The first intended FRONTISPIECE, is lost. The AVTHOR, was as much displeas’d, as Hee In such Adventures, is inclin’d to bee; And, halfe resolv’d, to cast this PIECE aside, As nothing worth: but, having better ey’d Those _Errors_, and _Confusions_, which may, there, Blame-worthy (at the first aspect) appeare; Hee saw, they fitted many Fantasies Much better, then what _Reason_ can devise; And, that, the _Graver_ (by meere _Chance_) had hit On what, so much transcends the reach of _Wit_, As made it seeme, an Object of _Delight_, To looke on what, MISFORTVNE brought to light: And, here it stands, to try his _Wit_, who lists To pumpe the secrets, out of _Cabalists_. If any thinke this _Page_ will, now, declare The meaning of those _Figures_, which are there, They are deceiv’d. For, _Destinie_ denyes The utt’ring of such hidden _Mysteries_, In these respects: First, _This_ contayneth nought Which (in a proper sense) concerneth, ought, The _present-Age_: Moreover, tis ordain’d, That, none must know the _Secrecies_ contain’d Within this PIECE; but, they who are so wise To finde them out, by their owne _prudencies_; And, hee that can unriddle them, to us, Shall stiled be, the second OEDIPVS. Tis, likewise, thought expedient, now and then, To make some _Worke_, for those _All-knowing men_, (To exercise upon) who thinke they see The _secret-meanings_, of all things that bee. And, lastly, since we finde, that, some there are,