Part II.

to that which defired them with a ftrong defire. And according to this is verified the art of characters, images, enchantments, and fome fpee^hes, and many other wonderful experiments, to every thing which the mind affeCts. By this means, whatfoever the mind of him that is in vehement love affeCts, hath an efficacy to caufe love •, and whatfoever the mind of him that ftrongly hates, dictates, hath an efficacy to hurt and deftroy. The like is in other things which the mind affeCts with a ftrong defire -, for all thofe things which the mind aCts, and dictates by characters, figures , -words , ffeeches , geflures , and the lihe , help the appetite of the foul, and acquire certain wonderful virtues from the foul of the operator, in that hour when fuch a like appetite doth invade it ; fo from the opportunity and celeftial influence, moving the mind in this or that manner : for our mind, when it is carried upon the great excefs of any paflion or virtue, oftentimes takes to itfelf a ftrong, better and more convenient hour or opportunity ; which Thomas Aquinas, in his third book againft the Gentiles, allows. So, many wonderful virtues both caufe and follow certain admirable operations by great affeCtions, in thofe things which the foul doth dictate in that hour to them. But know, that fuch kind of things confer nothing, or very little, but to the author of them, and to him who is inclined to them, as if he were the author of them ; and this is the manner by which their efficacy is found out. And it is a general rule in them, that every mind, that is more excellent in its defire and affeCtion, makes fuch like things more fit for itfelf, as alfo efficacious to that which it delires. Every one, therefore, that is willing to work in magic, muft know the virtue, meafure , order , and degree of his own foul in the power of the univerfe.
CHAP.
Chap. XIV.
TALISMANIC MAGIC.
99
CHAP. XIV.
SHEWING THE NECESSITY OF MATHEMATICAL KNOWLEDGE, AND OF THE GREAT POWER AND EFFICACY OF NUMBERS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TALISMANS, &C.
THE do6trines of mathematics are fo neceffary to and have fuch an affinity with magic, that they who profefs it without them are quite out of the way, and labour in vain, and {hall in no wife obtain their defired effeft. For what- foever things are, and are done in thefe inferior natural virtues, are all done and governed by number , weight , ?neafure, harmony , motion, and light : and all things which we fee in thefe inferiors have root and foundation in them ; yet, neverthelefs, without natural virtues of mathematical doctrines, only works like to naturals can be produced : as. Plato faith — a thing not partaking of truth or divinity, but certain imag'es akin to them (as bodies going, or fpeaking, which yet want the animal faculty), fuch as were thofe which, amongft the ancients, were called Dedalus’s images, and uvro^aTcc, of which Arillotle makes mention, viz. the three-footed images of Vulcan and Dedalus moving themfelves ; which, Homer faith, came out of their own accord to the exercife ; and which, we read, moved themfelves at the feaft of Hiarba, the philofophical exercifer. So there are made glaffes (fome concave, others of the form of a column) making the reprefentation of things in the air feem like fhadows at a diftance ; of which fort Apollonius and Vitellius, in their books, “ De Profpe6tiva,” and “ Speculis,” taught the making and the ufe. And. we read that Magnus Pompeius brought a certain glafs, amongft the fpoils from the Eaft, to Rome, in which were feen armies of armed men. And there are made certain tranfparent glaffes, which (being dipped in fome certain juices of herbs, and irradiated with an artificial light) fill the whole air round about with vifions. And we know how to make reciprocal glaffes, in which the fun fhining, all things which were illuftrated by the rays thereof are apparently feen many miles off. Hence a magician (expert in natural philofophy and mathematics, and knowing the middle fciences, confifting of both thefe, viz. arithmetic, mufic, geometry, optics, aftronomy, and fuch fciences that are of
N 2 weights,
100 TALISMANIC MAGIC. Fart II.
weights, meafures, proportions, articles, and joints 5 knowing, alfo, mecha- nical arts refulting from thefe) may, without any wonder, if he excel other men in the art and wit, do many wonderful things, which men may much admire. There are fome relics now extant of the antients, viz. Hercules and Alexander’s pillars ; the gate of Cafpia, made of brafs, and fhut with iron beams, that it could by no art be broken ; and the pyramis of Julius Casfar, crefted at Rome, near the hill Vaticanus ; and mountains built by art in the middle of the fea ; and towers, and heaps of hones, fuch as I have feen in England, put together by incredible art. But the vulgar feeing any won- derful fight, impute it to the Devil as his work ; or think that a miracle which, indeed, is a work of natural or mathematical philofophy. But here it is convenient that you know, that, as by natural virtues we collect natural virtues, fo by abftra6led, mathematical, and celeftial, we receive celeftial virtues : as mo- tion, fenfe, life, fpeech, foothfaying, and divination, even in matter lefs difpofed, as that which is not made by nature, but only by art. And fo images that fpeak, and foretel things to come, are faid to be made : as William of Paris relates of a brazen-head, made under the rifing of Saturn, which, they fay, fpake with a man’s voice. But he that will chufe a difpofed matter, and moll fit to receive, and a moll powerful agent, fhall undoubtedly produce more powerful effects. For it is a general opinion of the Pythagoreans, that, as mathematical are more formal than natural, fo alfo they are more efficacious'; as they have lefs dependance in their being, fo alfo in their operation. But amongfl all mathematical things, numbers , as they have more of form in them, fo alfo are more efficacious, as well to effect what is good- as what is bad. All things, which were firfl made by the nature of things in its firfl age, feem to be formed by the proportion of numbers ; for this was the principal pattern in the mind of the Creator. Hence is borrowed the number of the elements — hence the courfes of times — hence the motion of the liars, and the revolution of the heavens, and the Hate of all things fubfifl by the uniting together of numbers. Numbers, therefore, are endowed with great and fuh- lime virtues. For it is no wonder, feeing there are fo many occult virtues in natural things, although of manifefl operations, that there fhould be in num- bers
Chap. XIV. TALISMANIC MAGIC. {J1
bers much greater and more occult, and alfo more wonderful and efficacious ; for as much as they are more formal, more perfect, and naturally in the celef- tials, not mixed with feparated fubftances •, and, laftly, having- the greateft and moft timple commixion with the ideas in the mind of God, from which they receive their proper and moft efficacious virtues , wherefore they alfo are of moft force, and conduce moft to the obtaining- of fpiritual and divine gifts — as, in natural things, elementary qualities are powerful in the tranfmuting of any elementary thing. Again, all things that are, and are made, fubfift by and receive their virtue from numbers : — for time confifts of numbers— and all motion and aCtion, and all things which are fubjeCt to time and motion. Harmony, alfo, and voices have their power by and confift of numbers and their proportions ; and the proportion arifing from numbers do, by lines and points, make characters and figures •, and thefe are proper to magical opera^- tions — the middle, which is betwixt both, being appropriated by declining to the extremes, as in the ufe of letters. And laftly, all fpecies of natural things, and of thofe which are above Nature, are joined together by certain numbers 5 which Pythagoras feeing, fays, that number is that by which all things fub- fift, and diftributes each virtue to each number. And Proclus fays, number hath always a being : yet there is one in voice — another in proportion of them — another in the foul and reafon — and another in divine things. But Themiftius, Boetius, and Averrois (the Babylonian), together with Plato, do fo extol numbers, that they think no man can be a true philofopher without therm By them there is a way made for the fearching out and underftanding of all things knowable ; — by them the next accefs to natural prophecying is had — • and the Abbot Joachim proceeded no other way in his prophecies, but by formal, numbers.
CHAP,
.102
talismanic magic.