Book I.

ever things are taken for magical uses from animals, whether they are stones, members, hair, excrements, nails, or any thing else, they must be taken from those animals while they are yet alive, and, if it is possible, that they may live afterwards. If you take the tongue of a frog, you put the frog into water again ; — and Democritus writes, that if any one shall take out the tongue of a water-frog, no other part of the animal sticking to it, and lay it upon the place where the heart beats of a woman, she is compelled, against her will, to answer whatsoever you shall ask of her. Also, take the eyes of a frog, which must be extracted before sun-rise, and bound to the sick party, and the frog to be let go again blind into the water, the party shall be cured of a tertian ague ; also, the same will, being bound with the flesh of a nightingale in the skin of a hart, keep a person always wakeful without sleeping. Also, the roe of the fork fish being bound to the navel, is said to cause women an easy child-birth, if it be taken from it alive, and the fish put into the sea again. So the right eye of a serpent being applied to the soreness of the eyes, cures the same, if the serpent be let go alive. So, likewise, the tooth of a mole, being taken out alive, and afterwards let go, cures the tooth-ache ; and dogs will never bark at those who have the tail of a weasel that has escaped. Democritus says, that if the tongue of the cameleon be taken alive, it conduces to good success in trials, and likewise to women in labour ; but it must be hung up on some part of the outside of the house, otherwise, if brought into the house, it might be most dangerous.
There are very many properties that remain after death ; and these are things in which the idea of the matter is less swallowed up, according to Plato , in them : even after death, that which is immortal in them will work some wonderful things : — as in the skins we have mentioned of several wild beasts, which will corrode and eat one another after death ; also, a drum made of the rocket-fish drives away all creeping things at what distance soever the sound of it is heard ; and the strings of an instrument made of the guts of a wolf, and being strained upon a harp or lute, with strings made of sheep-guts, will make no harmony.
CHAP.
Chap. VIII.
NATURAL MAGIC.
39
CHAP. VIII.
OF THE WONDERFUL VIRTUES OF SOME KIND OF PRECIOUS STONES.
IT is a common opinion of magicians, that stones inherit great virtues, which they receive through the spheres and activity of the celestial influ- ences, by the medium of the soul or spirit of the world. Authors very much disagree in respect of the probability of their actually having such virtues in potentia, some debating warmly against any occult or secret virtue lying hid in them ; others, as warmly, shewing the causes and effects of these sym- pathetic properties. However, to leave these trifling arguments to those who love cavil and contentions better than I do> and, as I have neither leisure nor inclination to enter the lists with sophists, and tongue-philosophers ; I say, that these occult virtues are disposed throughout the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, by seeds, or ideas originally emanating from the Divine mind, and through supercelestial spirits and intelligence always operating, according to their proper offices and governments allotted them ; which virtues are infused, as we before said, through the medium of the Universal Spirit, as by a general and manifest sympathy and antipathy established in the law of Nature. Amongst a variety of examples, the loadstone is one most remarkable proof of the sympathy and antipathy we speak of. However to hasten to the point. Amongst stones, those which resemble the rays of the sun by their golden sparklings, (as does the glittering stone aetites) prevent the falling-sickness and poisons, if worn on the finger ; so the stone which is called oculis solis, or eye of the sun, being in figure like to the apple of the eye, from which shines forth a ray, comforts the brain, and strengthens sight ; the carbuncle, which shines by night, hath a virtue against all airy and vaporous poisons ; the chrysolite stone, of a light green colour, when held against the sun, there shines in it a ray like a star of gold ; this is singularly good for the lungs, and cures asthmatical complaints ; and if it be bored through, and the hollow filled with the mane of an ass, and bound to the left arm, it chases away all foolish and idle imaginations and melancholy fears, and drives away folly.
The
NATURAL MAGIC.
40 NATURAL MAGIC. Book I.
The stone called iris, which is like crystal in colour, being found with six corners, when held in the shade, and the sun suffered to shine through it, repre- sents a natural rainbow in the air. The stone heliotropium, green, like a jasper or emerald, beset with red specks, makes the wearer constant, renowned, and famous, and conduces to long life ; there is, likewise, another wonderful property in this stone, and that is, that it so dazzles the eyes of men, that it causes the bearer to be invisible ; but then there must be applied to it the herb bearing the same name, viz. heliotropium, or the sun-flower ; and these kind of virtues Albertus Magnus, and William of Paris, mention in their writings. The jacinth also possesses virtue from the sun against poisons, pestilences, and pestiferous vapours ; likewise it renders the bearer pleasant and acceptable ; conduces, also, to gain money ; being simply held in the mouth, it wonderfully cheers the heart, and strengthens the mind. Then there is the pyrophilus, of a red mixture, which Albertus Magnus reports that Aisculapius makes mention of in one of his epistles to Octavius Cmsar, saying, “ There is a certain poison, so intensely cold, which preserves the heart of man, being taken out, from burning ; so that if it be put into the fire for any time, it is turned into a stone, which stone is called pyrophilus : ” it possesses a wonderful virtue against poison ; and it infallibly renders the wearer thereof renowned and dreadful to his enemies. Apollonius is reported to have found a stone called pantaura, (which will attract other stones, as the loadstone does iron) most powerful against all poisons : it is spotted like the panther, and therefore some naturalists have given this stone the name of pantherus : Aaron calls it evanthum ; and some, on account of its variety, call it pantochras.
CHAP.
Chap. IX.
NATURAL MAGIC.
41
CHAP. IX.
OF THE MIXTURES OF NATURAL THINGS ONE WITH ANOTHER, AND THE PRODUCING OF MONSTROUS ANIMALS, BY THE APPLICATION OF NATURAL MAGIC.
MAGICIANS, students, and observers of the operations of Nature, know how, by the application of active forms to a matter fitly disposed, and made, as it were, a proper recipient, to effect many wonderful and uncommon things that seem strange, and above Nature, by gathering this and that thing bene- ficial and conducive to that effect which we desire ; however, it is evident that all the powers and virtues of the inferior bodies are not found comprehended in any one single thing, but are dispersed amongst many of the compounds here amongst us ; wherefore it is necessary, if there be a hundred virtues of the sun dispersed through so many animals, plants, metals, or stones, we should gather all these together, and bring them all into one form, in which we shall see all the said virtues, being united, contained. Now there is a double virtue in commixing : one, viz. which was once planted in its parts, and is celestial ; the other is obtained by a certain artificial mixture of things, mixed among themselves, according to a due proportion, such as agree with the heavens under a certain constellation ; and this virtue descends by a certain similitude or likeness that is in things amongst themselves, by which they are drawn or attracted towards their superiors, and as much as the following do by degrees correspond with them that go before, where the patient is fitly applied to its agent. So from a certain composition of herbs , vapours , and such like, made according to the rules of Natural and Celestial Magic, there results a certain common form ; of which we shall deliver the true and infallible rules and experiments in our Second Book, where we have written expressly on the same.
We ought, likewise, to understand that by how much more noble and ex- cellent the form of any thing is, by so much the more it is prone, and apt to receive, and powerful to act. Then the virtue of things do indeed become wonderful ; viz. when they are applied to matters, mixed and prepared in fit