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Rh things I have seen or met with, and where and how I at last discovered the solace which I had vainly sought in the world; all this I have, as it were, depicted in this treatise. With how much wit, I heed not. May God only grant that my work be useful to myself and to my fellow-men!

5. It is not a poem, reader, that you will read, although it may have the seeming of a poem. It contains true matter; understanding me, you will easily recognise this; he, in particular, who has some knowledge of my life and its incidents. For I have mainly depicted the adventures that I have already encountered in the not numerous years of my life, though I have also described some incidents that I have seen in others, and things concerning them, of which information was given unto me. I have not, however, alluded to all the happenings that befell me, partly from bashfulness, partly because I did not know what instruction such a narrative would confer on others.

6. My guides, and indeed those of everyone who gropes through this world, are two. Insolence of the mind, which inquires into everything, and inveterate custom with regard to all things, which gives the colour of truth to the deceits of the world. He who follows them prudently will, together with me, recognise the wretched turmoil of his race; but if it appears otherwise to him, let him know that