Book I, D in

26 NATURAL MAGIC, Book I,
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in a chimney, by the legs, and fet under him a difli of yellow wax, to receive whaifoever may come down, or fall from his mouth -, let him hang in this po- rtion, in our fight, for three or four days, at leaft till he is dead : now we muft not omit frequently to be prefent in fight of the animal, fo that his fears and inbred terror of us, with the ideas of ftrong hatred, may encreafe even unto death.
So you have a molt powerful remedy in this one toad, for the curing of forty thoufand perfons infe6ted with the peft or plague.
Van Helmont’s procefs for making a prefervative amulet againft the plague is as follows : —
“ In the month of July, in the decreafe of the moon, I took old toads, whofe eyes abounded with white worms hanging forth into black heads, fo that both his eyes were totally formed with worms, perhaps fifty in number, thickly compacted together, their heads hanging out ; and as oft as any one of them at- tempted to get out, the toad, by applying his fore-foot, forbade its utterance. Thefe toads being hung up, and made to vomit in the manner before men- tioned, I reduced the infefts and other matters ejected from the toad, with the waxen difli being added thereto ; and, the dried carcafs of the toad being re- duced into powder, I formed the whole into troches, with gum-dragon ; which, being borne about the left breaft, drove fpeedily away all contagion 5 and being faft bound to the place affedted, thoroughly drew out the poifon : and thefe troches w'ere more potent after they had returned into ufe divers times, than when new. I found them to be a molt powerful amulet againft the plague ; for if the ferpent eateth duft all the days of his life, becaufe he was the inftrument of finning ; fo the toad eats earth, (which he vomits up) all the days of his life •, and, according to the Adeptical philofophy, the toad bears an hatred to man, fo that he infers fome herbs that are ufeful to man with his poifon, in order for his death. But this difference note between the toad and the ferpent : the toad, at the fight of man, from a natural quality fealed in him, called antipathy, conceives a great terror or aftonifliment ; which ter- ror from man imprints on this animal a natural efficacy againft the images of the affrighted archeus in man. For, truly, the terror of the toad kills and anni- hilates
Chap. II. NATURAL MAGIC. 27
hilates the ideas of the affrighted archeus in man, becaufe the terror in the toad is natural, therefore radical.”
For the poifon of the plague is fubdued by the poifon of the toad, not by an action primarily deftru&ive, but by a fecondary action ; as the peftilent idea of hatred or terror extinguilh.es the ferment, by whofe mediation the poi- fon of the plague fubfifts, and proceeds to infebt : for feeing the poifon of the plague is the produft of the image of the terrified archeus eftablilhed in a fer- mental, putrified, odour, and mumial air, this coupling ferments the appro- priate mean, and immediately the fubje6t of the poifon is taken away.
Therefore the oppofition of the amulet formed from the body, &c„, of the toad, takes away and prevents the baneful and moll horrible effects of the peftilential poifon and ferment of the plague.
Hence it is conjectured that he is an animal ordained by God, that the idea of his terror being poifonous indeed to himfelf, fhould be to us, and to our plague, a poifon in terror. Since, therefore, the toad is moft fearful at the beholding of man, which in himfelf, notwithftanding, forms the terror con- ceived from man, and alfo the hatred againft man, into an image and aftive real being, and not confifting only in a confufed apprehenfiori ; hence it happens that a poifon arifeth in the toad, which kills the peftilent poifon of terror in man ; to wit, from whence the archeus waxeth ftrong, he not only perceiving the peftilent idea to be extinguilhed in himfelf ; but, moreover, becaufe he knoweth that fomething inferior to himfelf is terrified, difmayed, and doth fly. Again, fo great is the fear of the toad, that if he is placed directly before thee, and thou doft behold with an intentive furious look, fo that he cannot avoid thee, for a quarter of an hour, he dies,* being fafcinated with terror and aftonilhment.
* I have tried this experiment upon the toad, and other reptiles of his nature, and was fatisfied of the truth of this affirmation.
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NATURAL MAGIC.