Part II.

them ; which, being freed from cares, and no way hindered, expecting to meet fuch kind of fpecies, is informed by them. For the fpecies of things, although of their own proper nature they are carried to the fenfes of men, and other animals in general, may, notwithftanding, get fome impreffion from the heavens whilft they are in the air ; by reafon of which, together with the aptnefs and difpofition of him that receives them, they may be car- ried to the fenfe of one, rather than of another. And hence it is poffible, naturally, and far from all manner of fuperftition (no other fpirit coming be- tween), that a man fhould be able, in a very fmall time, to fignify his mind unto another man, abiding at a very long and unknown diftance from him — although he cannot precifely give an eftimate of the time when it is, yet, of neceffity, it mult be within twenty-four hours ; — and I, myfelf, know how to do it, and have often done it. The fame alfo, in time palt, did the Abbot Tritemius both know and do. — Alfo, when certain appearances (not only fpi- ritual, but alfo natural) do flow forth from things, that is to fay, by a cer- tain kind of flowings forth of bodies from bodies, and do gather llrength in the air, they Ihew themfelves to us as well through light as motion — as well to the fight as to other fenfes — and fometimes work wonderful things upon us, as Platonius proves and teacheth. And we fee how, by the fouth-wind, the air is condenfed into thin clouds, in which, as in a looking-glafs, are reflected reprefentations, at a great diftance, of caftles, mountains, horfes, men, and other things, which, when the clouds are gone, prefently vanilh. — And Ariftotle, in his Meteors, ffiews that a rainbow is conceived in a cloud of the air, as in a looking-glafs. — And Albertus fays, that the effigies of bodies may, by the ftrength of Nature, in a moift air, be eafily reprefented ; in the fame manner as the reprefentations of things are in things. — And Ariftotle tells of a man, to whom it happened, by reafon of the weaknefs of his fight, that the air that was near to him became, as it were, a looking-glafs to him, and the optic-beam did refleft back upon himfelf, and could not penetrate the air, fo that, whitherfoever he went, he thought he faw his own image, with his face towards him, go before him. — In like manner, by the artificialnefs of fome certain looking-glafles, may be produced at a diftance, in the air, befides the
looking-
TALISMANIC MAGIC.
Chap. IV. TALISMANIC MAGIC. 81
looking-glaffes, what images we pleafe ; which, when ignorant men fee, they think they fee the appearances of fpirits or fouls — when, indeed, they are no- thing elfe but femblances a-kin to themfelves, and without life. And it is well-known, if in a dark place, where there is no light but by the coming in of a beam of the fun fome where through a little hole, a white paper or plain looking-glafs be fet up againft the light, that there may be feen upon them whatfoever things are done without, being thined upon by the fun. And there is another flight or trick yet more wonderful : — if any one fliall take images, artificially painted, or written letters, and, in a clear night, fet them againft the beams of the full moon, thofe refemblances being multiplied in the air, and caught upward, and refledted back together with the beams of the moon, another man, that is privy to the thing, at a long diftance, fees, reads, and knows them in the very compafs and circle of the moon ; which art of de- claring fecrets is, indeed, very profitable for towns and cities that are*befieged, being a thing which Pythagoras long fince did, and which is not unknown to fome in thefe days ; I will not except myfelf. And all thefe things, and many more, and much greater than thefe, are grounded in the very nature of the air, and have their reafons and caufes declared in mathematics and optics. And as thefe refemblances are refledted back to the fight, fo al£b are they, fometimes, to the hearing, as is manifeft in echo. But there are many more fecret arts than thefe, and fuch whereby any one may, at a remarkable diftance, hear, and underftand diftindtly, what another fpeaks or whifpers.
' CHAP. IV.
OF COMPOUND, OR MIXED BODIES IN WHAT MANNER THEY RELATE TO THE ELEMENTS
AND HOW THE ELEMENTS RELATE TO THE SOULS, SENSES/ AND DISPOSITIONS OF
MEN.
THE next in order, after the four fimple elements, are the four kinds of perfedt bodies compounded of them, viz. metals, ftones, plants, and animals ; and although in the generation of each of thefe, all the elements combine to-