Begin and take in hand

Meaning

Making a beginning is explicitly conditional. The reader must first have exercised earnestly in the oratory, recognized the matter and obtained it. Only then may diligence be applied in the laboratory. Taking the work in hand is thus not an invitation to immediate experimentation based on an attractive description. The English “may afterwards” retains the permission and temporal order of the German, while “make a beginning” translates the ordinary activity-word rather than naming a new technical operation. This short transition joins devotional and material preparation without making them identical: the oratory is not replaced by the laboratory, and possession of matter does not by itself satisfy all the conditions.