“to be that vertue, by which, to euery one, is rendred, that to him appertaineth.” God challengeth this at our handes, to be honored as God: to be loued, as a father: to be feared as a Lord & master. Our neighbours proportiõ, is also prescribed of the Almighty lawmaker: which is, to do to other, euen as we would be done vnto. These proportions, are in Iustice necessary: in duety, commendable: and of Common wealthes, the life, strength, stay and florishing. _Aristotle_ in his _Ethikes_ (to fatch the sede of Iustice, and light of direction, to vse and execute the same) was fayne to fly to the perfection, and power of Numbers: for proportions Arithmeticall and Geometricall. _Plato_ in his booke called _Epinomis_ (which boke, is the Threasury of all his doctrine) where, his purpose is, to seke a Science, which, when a man had it, perfectly: he might seme, and so be, in dede, _Wise_. He, briefly, of other Sciences discoursing, findeth them, not hable to bring it to passe: But of the Science of Numbers, he sayth. _Illa, quæ numerum mortalium generi dedit, id profecto efficiet. Deum autem aliquem, magis quam fortunam, ad salutem nostram, hoc munus nobis arbitror contulisse. &c. Nam ipsum bonorum omnium Authorem, cur non maximi boni, Prudentiæ dico, causam arbitramur? +That Science, verely, which hath taught mankynde number, shall be able to bryng it to passe. And, I thinke, a certaine God, rather then fortune, to haue giuen vs this gift, for our blisse. For, why should we not Iudge him, who is the Author of all good things, to be also the cause of the greatest good thyng, namely, Wisedome?+_ There, at length, he proueth _Wisedome_ to be atteyned, by good Skill of _Numbers_. With which great Testimony, and the manifold profes, and reasons, before expressed, you may be sufficiently and fully persuaded: of the perfect Science of _Arithmetike_, to make this accounte: That [☞] of all Sciences, next to _Theologie_, it is most diuine, most pure, most ample and generall, most profounde, most subtile, most commodious and most necessary. Whose next Sister, is the Absolute Science of _Magnitudes_: of which (by the Direction and aide of him, whose _Magnitude_ is Infinite, and of vs Incomprehensible) I now entend, so to write, that both with the _Multitude_, and also with the _Magnitude_ of Meruaylous and frutefull verities, you (my frendes and Countreymen) may be stird vp, and awaked, to behold what certaine Artes and Sciences, (to our vnspeakable behofe) our heauenly father, hath for vs prepared, and reuealed, by sundry _Philosophers_ and _Mathematiciens_.