must be as well seen also in the nature of Metals Minerals Gems and Stones Furthermore what cunning he must have in the art of Distillation which follows and resembles the showers and dew of heaven as the daughter the mother I think no man will doubt of it for it yeelds daily very strange inventions and most witty devices and shews how to finde out many things profitable for the use of man As for example to draw out of things dewy vapours unsavoury and gross sents or spirits clots and gummy or slimy humours and that intimate essence which lurks in the inmost bowels of things to fetch it forth and sublimate it that it may be of the greater strength And this he must learn to do not after a rude and homely manner but with knowledge of the causes and reasons thereof He must also know the Mathematical Sciences and especially Astrologie for that shews how the Stars are moved in the heavens and what is the cause of the darkning of the Moon and how the Sun that golden planet measures out the parts of the world and governs it by twelve Signes for by the sundry motions and aspects of the heavens the celestial bodies are very beneficial to the earth and from thence many things receive both active and passive powers and their manifold properties the difficulty of which point long troubled the Platonicks mindes how these inferiour things should receive influence from heaven Moreover he must be skilful in the Opticks that he may know how the sight may be deceived and how the likeness of a vision that is seen in the water may be seen hanging without in the air by the help of certain Glasses of divers fashions and how to make one see that plainly which is a great way off and how to throw fire very far from us upon which sleights the greatest part of the secrecies of Magick doth depend These are the Sciences which Magick takes to her self for servants and helpers and he that knows not these is unworthy to be named a Magician He must be a skilful workman both by natural gifts and also by the practise of his own hands for knowledge without practice and workmanship and practice without knowledge are nothing worth these are so linked together that the one without the other is but vain and to no purpose Some there are so apt for these enterprises even by the gifts of Nature that God may seem to have made them hereunto Neither yet do I speak this as if Art could not perfect any thing for I know that good things may be made better and there are means to remedy and help foward that which lacks perfection First let a man consider and prepare things providently and skilfully and then let him fall to work and do nothing unadvisedly This I thought good to speak of that if at any time the ignorant be deceived herein he may not lay the fault upon us but upon his own unskilfulness for this is the infirmity of the scholar and not of the teacher for if rude and ignorant men shall deal in these matters this Science will be much discredited and those strange effects will be accounted hap-hazard which are most certain and follow their necessary cause If you would have your works appear more wonderful you must not let the cause be known for that is a wonder to us which we see to be done and yet know not the cause of it for he that knows the causes of a thing done doth not so admire the doing of it and nothing is counted unusual and rare but onely so far forth as the causes thereof are not known Aristotle in his books of Handy-trades saith that master-builders frame and make their tools to work with but the principles thereof which move admiration those they conceal A certain man put out a candle and putting it to a stone or a wall lighted it again and this seemed to be a great wonder but when once they perceived that he touched it with brimstone then saith Galen it ceased to seem a wonder A miracle saith Ephesius is dissolved by that wherein it seemed to be a miracle Lastly the professor of this Science must also be rich for if we lack money we shall hardly work in these cases for it is not Philosophy that can make us rich we must first be rich that we may play the Philosophers He must spare for no charges but be prodigal in seeking things out and while he is busie and careful in seeking he must be patient also and think it not much to recal many things neither must he spare for any pains for the secrets of Nature are not revealed to lazie and idle persons Wherefore Epicharmus said very well that men purchase all things at Gods hands by the price of their labour And if the effect of thy work be not answerable to my description thou must know that thy self hast failed in some one point or another for I have set down these things briefly as being made for wrtty and skilful workmen and not for rude and young beginners CHAP. IV. The opinions of the antient Philosophers touching the causes of strange operations and first of the Elements THose effects of Nature which oft-times we behold have so imployed the antient Philosophers minds in the searching forth of their causes that they have taken great pains and yet were much deceived therein insomuch that divers of them have held divers opinions which it shall not be amiss to relate before we proceed any farther The first sort held that all things proceed from the Elements and that these are the first beginnings of things the fire according to Hippasus Metapontinus and Heraclides Ponticus the air according to Diogenes Apolloniates and Anaximenes and the water according to Thales Milesius These therefore they held to be the very original and first seeds of Nature even the Elements simple and pure bodies whereas the Elements that now are be but counterfeits and bastards to them for they are all changed every one of them being more or less medled with one another those say they are the material principles of a natural body and they are moved and altered by continual succession of change and they are so wrapt up together within the huge cope of heaven that they fill up this whole space of the world which is situate beneath the Moon for the fire being the lightest and purest Element hath gotten up aloft and chose it self the highest room which they call the element of fire The next Element to this is the Air which is somwhat more weighty then the fire and it is spread abroad in a large and huge compass and passing through all places doth make mens bodies framable to her temperature and is gathered together sometimes thick into dark clouds sometimes thinner into mists and so is resolved The next to these is the water and then the last and lowest of all which is scraped and compacted together out of the
of Magick THere are two sorts of Magick the one is infamous and unhappie because it hath to do with foul spirits and consists of Inchantments and wicked Curiosity and this is called Sorcery an art which all learned and good men derest neither is it able to yeeld any truth of Reason or Nature but stands meerly upon fancies and imaginations such as vanish presently away and leave nothing behinde them as Jamblichus writes in his book concerning the mysteries of the Aegyptians The other Magick is natural which all excellent wise men do admit and embrace and worship with great applause neither is there any thing more highly esteemed or better thought of by men of learning The most noble Philosophers that ever were Pythagoras Empedocles Democrites and Plato forsook their own countries and lived abroad as exiles and banished men rather then as strangers and all to search out and to attain this knowledge and when they came home again this was the Science which they professed and this they esteemed a profound mysterie They that have been most skilfuâ— in dark and hidden points of learning do call this knowledge the very highest point and the perfection of natural Science insomuch that if they could find out or devise amongst all natural Sciences any one thing more excellent or more wonderful then another that they would still call by the name of Magick Others have named it the practical part of natural Philosophy which produceth her effects by the mutual and fit application of one natural thing unto another The Platonicks as Plotinus imitating Mercurius writes in his book of Sacrifice and Magick makes it to be a Science whereby inferiour things are made subject to superiours earthly are subdued to heavenly and by certain pretty allurements it fetcheth forth the properties of the whole frame of the world Hence the Aegyptians termed Nature her self a Magician because she hath an alluring power to draw like things by their likes and this power say they consists in love and the things that were so drawn and brought together by the affinity of Nature those they said were drawn by Magick But I think that Magick is nothing else but the survey of the whole course of Nature For whilst we consider the Heavens the Stars the Elements how they are moved and how they are changed by this means we find out the hidden secrecies of living creatures of plants of metals and of their generation and corruption so that this whole Science seems meerly to depend upon the view of Nature as afterward we shall see more at large This doth Plato seem to signifie in his Alcibiades where he saith That the Magick of Zoroastres was nothing else in his opinion but the knowledge and study of Divine things wherewith the Kings Sons of Persia amongst other princely qualities were endued that by the example of the Common-wealth of the whole world they also might learn to govern their own Common-wealth And Tully in his book of Divinations saith That amongst the Persians no man might be a King unless he had first learned the Art of Magick for as Nature governs the world by the mutual agreement and disagreement of the creatures after the same sort they also might learn to govern the Common-wealth committed unto them This Art I say is full of much vertue of many secret mysteries it openeth unto us the properties and qualities of hidden things and the knowledge of the whole course of Nature and it reacheth us by the agreement and the disagreement of things either so to sâ—nder them or else to lay them so together by the mutual and fit applying of one thing to another as thereby we do strange works such as the vulgar sort call miracles and such as men can neither well conceive nor sufficiently admire For this cause Magick was wont to flourish in Aethiopia and India where was great store of herbs and stones and such other things as were fit for these purposes Wherefore as many of you as come to behold Magick must be perswaded that the works of Magick are nothing else but the works of Nature whose dutiful hand-maid Magick is For if she find any want in the affinity of Nature that it is not strong enough she doth supply such defects at convenient seasons by the help of vapours and by observing due measures and proportions as in Husbandry it is Nature that brings forth corn and herbs but it is Art that prepares and makes way for them Hence was it that Antipho the Poet said That we overcome those things by Art wherein Nature doth overcome us and Plotinus calls a Magician such a one as works by the help of Nature onely and not by the help of Art Superstitious profane and wicked men have nothing to do with this Science her gate is shut against them neither do we judge them worthy to be driven away from this profession onely but even out of Cities and out of the world to be grievously punished and utterly destroyed But now what is the 〈◊〉 and what must be the learning of this professor we purpose to 〈◊〉 in that which floweth CHAP. III. The Instruction of a Magician and what manner of man a Magician ought to be NOw it is meet to instruct a Magician both what he must know and what he must observe that being sufficiently instructed every way he may bring very strange and wonderful things to pass Seeing Magick as we shewed before is a practical part of Natural Philosophy therefore it behoveth a Magician and one that aspires to the dignity of that profession to be an exact and a very perfect Philosopher For Philosophy teaches what are the effects of fire earth air and water the principal matter of the heavens and what is the cause of the flowing of the Sea and of the divers-coloured Rain-bowe and of the loud Thunder and of Comets and firy lights that appear by night and of Earth-quakes and what are the beginnings of Gold and of Iron and what is the whole witty force of hidden Nature Then also he must be a skilful Physician for both these Sciences are very like and neer together and Physick by creeping in under colour of Magick hath purchased favour amongst men And surely it is a great help unto us in this kinde for it teaches mixtures and temperatures and so shews us how to compound and lay things together for such purposes Moreover it is required of him that he be an Herbalist not onely able to discern common Simples but very skilful and sharp-sighted in the nature of all plants for the uncertain names of plants and their neer likeness of one to another so that they can hardly be discerned hath put us to much trouble in some of our works and experiments And as there is no greater inconvenience to any Artificer then not to know his tools that he must work with so the knowledge of plants is so necessary to this profession that indeed it is all in all He
the Elements meet together in the framing of any compound the same compound retains certain excellent and chief qualities of theirs whereof though all help together to bring forth any effects yet the superiour and predominant qualities are held to do all because they make the power of their inferiour to become theirs for unlesse some were stronger then other their vertues could not be perceived Neither yet is the matter quite destitute of all force I speak here not of the first and simple matter but of that which consists of the substances and properties of the Elements especially the two passible elements the Earth and the Water and those which Aristotle calleth sometimes secondary qualities sometimes bodily effects we may term them the functions and powers of the matter as thinnesse thicknesse roughnesse smoothnesse easinesse to be cleft and such like are altogether in the power of the matter howbeit they proceed all from the Elements Therefore to avoid confusion it is better to hold that the effects of the qualities come of the temperature or mixture of the Elements but the effects of the matter from the consistence or substances of them But the Form hath such singular vertue that whatsoever effects we see all of them first proceed from thence and it hath a divine beginning and being the chiefest and most excellent part absolute of her self she useth the rest as her instruments for the more speedy and convenient dispatch of her actions and he which is not addicted nor accustomed to such contemplations supposeth that the temperature and the matter works all things whereas indeed they are but as it were instruments whereby the form worketh for a workman that useth a graving Iron in the carving of an Image doth not use it as though that could work but for his own furtherance in the quicker and better performance thereof Therefore whereas there are three efficient and working causes in every compound we must not suppose any of them to be idle but all at work some more and some lesse but above all other the form is most active and busie strengthening the rest which surely would be to no purpose if the form should fail them in as much as they are not capable of heavenly influences And though the form of it self be not able to produce such effects but the rest also must do their parts yet are they neither confounded together not yet become divers things but they are so knit among themselves that one stands in need of anothers help He that scans these things well by the search of reason shall find no obscurity herein nor confound the knowledge of the truth Wherefore that force which is called the property of a thing proceeds not from the temperature but from the very form it self CHAP. VI. Whence the Form cometh and of the chain that Homer faigned and the rings that Plato mentioneth So then the form as it is the most excellent part so it cometh from a most excellent place even immediately from the highest heavens they receiving it from the intelligences and these from God himself and the same original which the Form hath consequently the properties also have Zeno Citticus holds two beginnings God and Matter the one of them active or efficient the other the passive principle For God as Plato thinks when by the Almighty power of his Deity he had framed in due measure and order the heavens the stars and the very first principles of things the Elements which wast away by reason of so many generations and corruptions did afterwards by the power of the Heavens and Elements ordain the kinds of living creatures plants and things without life every one in their degree that they might not be of the same estate and condition as the heavens are and he enjoyned inferiour things to be ruled of their superiours by a set Law and poured down by heavenly influence upon every thing his own proper Form ful of much strength and activity and that there might be a continual encrease amongst them he commanded all things to bring forth seed and to propagate and derive their Form wheresoever should be fit matter to receive it So then seeing that formes come from heaven they must needs be counted Divine and heavenly things for such is the pattern and the most excellent cause of them which Plato that chief Philosopher calls the soul of the World and Aristotle universal Nature and Avicenna calls it the Form-giver This Form-giver doth not make it of any thing as though it were but some frail and transitory substance but fercheth it meerly out of himself and bestows it first upon intelligences and stars then by certain aspects informeth the Elements as being fit instruments to dispose the matter Seeing therefore this Form cometh from the Elements from heaven from the intelligences yea from God himself who is so foolish and untoward as to say that it doth not savour of that heavenly nature and in some sort of the Majesty of God himself and that it doth not produce such effects as nothing can be found more wonderfull seeing it hath such affinity with God Thus hath the providence of God linked things together in their rankes and order that all inferiour things might by their due courses be derived originally from God himself and from him receive their Operations For God the first cause and beginner of things as Macrobius saith of his own fruitfulnesse hath created and brought forth a Spirit the Spirit brought forth a Soul but the â—â—â—th of Christianity saith otherwise the Soul is furnished partly with reason which it bestows up Divine things as heaven and the stars for therefore are they said to have Divine Spirits and partly with sensitive and vegerative powers which it bestows upon frail and transitorâ— things Thus much Virgil well perceiving calleth this Spirit The soul of the World The Spirit saith he cherisheth it within and conveying it self through the inmost parts quickens and moves the whole lump and closeth with this huge body Wherefore seeing Maâ—stands as it were in the middle betwixt eternal and those transâ—ory things and is not altogether so excellent as heaven and yet because of his reason more excellent then other living creatures and he hath also the sensitive power therefore the other living creatures as it were degenerating from man are indued onely with the two powers that remain the sensitive and vegetative powers But the Trees or Plants because they have neither sense nor reason but do onely grow are said to live only in this respect that they have this vegetative soul. This the same Poet doth expresse a little after Seeing then the Spirit cometh from God and from the Spirit cometh the soul and the soul doth animate and quicken all other things in their order that Plants and bruit beasts do agree in vegetation or growing bruit beasts with Man in sense and Man with the Divine creatures in understanding so that the superior power cometh down even from
Likewise the pulse called Lupines still looks after the Sun that it may not writhe his stalk and this watcheth the Suns motion so duly that like a Dial it shews the Husband-man the time of the day though it be never so cloudy and they know thereby the just time when the Sun setteth and Theophrastus saith that the flower of the herb Lotum is not onely open and shut but also sometimes hides and sometimes shews her stalk from Sun-set to midnight and this saith he is done about the River Euphrates So the Olive-tree the Sallow the Linden-tree the Elm the white Pople-tree they declare the times of the Suns standing when it turns back again from the Poles for then they hide their leaves and shew only their hoar-white backs In like manner winter-Cresses or Irium and Penyrial though they begin to wither being gathered yet if you hang them upon a stick about the time of the Solstice they will for that time flourish The stone Selenites as much as to say the Moon-beam called by others Aphroselinon contains in it the Image of the Moon and shews the waxing and waining of it every day in the same Image Another stone there is that hath in it a little cloud that turns about like the Sun sometimes hiding sometimes shewing it self The Beast Cynocephalus rejoiceth at the rising of the Moon for then he stands up lifting his fore-feet toward heaven and wears a Royal Ensign upon his head and he hath such a Sympathy with the Moon that when she meets with the Sun as betwixt the old and new Moon so that she gives no light the male or He-Cynocephalus never looks up nor eats any thing as bewailing the losse of the Moon and the female as male-content as He all that while pisseth blood for which causes these beasts are nourished and kept in hallowed places that by them the time of the Moones meeting with the Sun may be certainly known as Oruâ— writes in his Hieroglyphicks The star Arcturus at his rising causeth rain Dogs are well acquainted with the rising of the Canicular star for at that time they are commonly mad and so are vipers and serpents nay then the very standing pools are moved and wines work as they lye in the Cellar and other great and strange effects are wrought upon earth when this star riseth Basil-gentle waxeth whiterish and Coriander waxeth dry as Theophrastus writeth The rising of this star was wont to be diligently observed every year for thereby they would prognosticate whether the year following would be wholesome or contagious as Heraclides Ponticus saith for if it did rise dark and gloomy it was a sign that the Air would be thick and foggy which would cause a pestilence but if it were clear and lightsome it was a sign that the Air would be thin and well purged and consequently healthful In ancient times they much feared this Star so that they ordained a dog to be offered in sacrifice to it as Columella saith that this star is pacified with the blood and entrails of a sucking whelp and Ovid likewise saith that a dog bred on the earth is sacrificed to the Dog-star in Heaven The Beast or wilde Goat which in Egypt is called Oryx hath a sense or feeling of this Star before it riseth for then he looks upon the Sun-beams and in them doth honour the Canicular star Hippocrates saith it is good either to purge or let blood before or after this star riseth and Galen shews that many very necessary operations of this Star must be observed in Critical dayes and likewise in sowing and planting Moreover the greater stars and constellations must be known and at what time they go out of the signs whereby are caused many waterish and fiery impressions in the Air. And whosoever is rightly seen in all these things he will ascribe all these inferiours to the stars as their causes whereas if a man be ignorant hereof he loseth the greatest part of the knowledge of secret operations and works of nature But of this argument we have spoken in our writings of the knowledge of Plants CHAP. IX How to attract and draw forth the vertues of superiour Bodies WE have shewed before the operations of celestial bodies into these inferiours as also the Antipathy and Sympathy of things now will we shew by the affinity of Nature whereby all things are linked together as it were in one common bond how to draw forth and to fetch out the vertues and forces of superior bodies The Platonicks termed Magick to be the attractions or fetching out of one thing from another by a certain affinity of Nature For the parts of this huge world like the limbs and members of one living creature do all depend upon one Author and are knit together by the bond of one Nature therefore as in us the brain the lights the heart the liver and other parts of us do receive and draw mutual benefit from each other so that when one part suffers the rest also suffer with it even so the parts and members of this huge creature the World I mean all the bodies that are in it do in good neighbour-hood as it were lend and borrow each others Nature for by reason that they are linked in one common bond therefore they have love in common and by force of this common love there is amongst them a common attraction or tilling of one of them to the other And this indeed is Magick The concavity or hollownesse of the Sphere of the Moon draws up fire to it because of the affinity of their Natures and the Sphere of the fire likewise draws up Air and the centre of the world draws the earth downward and the natural place of the waters draws the waters to it Hence it is that the Load-stone draws iron to it Amber draws chaff or light straws Brimstone draws fire the Sun draws after it many flowers and leaves and the Moon draws after it the waters Plotinus and Synesius say Great is nature everywhere she layeth certain baits whereby to catch certain things in all places as she draws down heavy things by the centre of the earth as by a bait so she draws light things upward by the concavity of the Moon by heat leaves by moisture roots by one bait or another all things By which kind of attraction the Indian Wisards hold that the whole world is knit and bound within it self for say they the World is a living creature everywhere both male and female and the parts of it do couple together within and between themselves by reason of their mutual love and so they hold and stand together every member of it being linked to each other by a common bond which the Spirit of the World whereof we spake before hath inclined them unto For this cause Orpheus calleth Jupiter and the Nature of the World man and wife because the World is so desirous to marry and couple her parts together The very order of the Signs
care not for Basil-gentle because it brings a Lethargy as Chrysippus writes The same Beasts have also shewed us what herbs are good to cure wounds When the Harts are wounded by the Cretians they seek out the herb Dittany and presently the darts fall out of their bodies And so do the Goats The Elephant being wounded seeks out the juice of Aloes and thereby is cured The same Beasts have also found our purgations for themselves and thereby taught us the same An Asse eats the herb Asplenum to purge his melancholy of whom the Physitians have learned to Minister the same herb for the same purpose The Hinde purges her self with large Cummin before she bringeth forth that her birth may come the more easily from her Aristotle saith That Boars feed upon the herb Aram or Wake-robin to keep them soluble Pigeons and Cocks feed upon Pellitory for the sharpening of their stomack Dogs eat grasse to purge all their noisome humours which otherwise would make them mad Of all these men have learned to use such Medicines against the like diseases A Lion being sick of a quartane Ague eats and devours Apes and so is healed hence we know that Apes blood is good against an Ague The griping of the belly and guts is healed by looking upon Geese and Ducks and Vegetius writes and Columella saith that if a Duck do but look upon a sick horse she heals him and Pliny saith that if you lay a Duck to the griping of ones belly she takes away the disease and dies of it her self and Marcellus writes That it is good for one that is so troubled to eat the flesh of a Duck. Goats and Does are never purblind because they eat certain herbs Hawks as soon as they feel their sight dim they eat Sow-thistle Elephants against the diseases of their eyes drink milk Serpents have caused Fennel to be very famous for as soon as they taste of it they become young again and with the juice thereof repair their sight whence it is observed that the same is good to repair a mans sight that is dim Hares feed upon herbs that have juice like milk and therfore in their bellies they have a cream whence Shepherds have learned to make cream of many such herbs pressed together Partridges eat leeks to make their voices clear as Aristotle writes and according to their example Nero to keep his voice clear eat nothing but oyle of leeks certain dayes in every moneth These Beasts have likewise found out many instruments in Physick The Goats when their eyes are blood-shotten let out the blood the She-goat by the point of a bull-rush the He-goat by the pricking of a thorn which lets out the evil humour and yet never hurts the eye but restores him his perfect sight hence men learned by such means to cure the eyes The Aegyptians say they never learned of men to minister clysters but of the bird Ibis which useth it to her self for the loosnesse of her body And of the same bird also they learned their diet to eat largely at the waxing and sparingly at the waining of the Moon Bears eyes are oft-times dimmed and for that cause they desire hony-combs above all things that the Bees stinging their mouths may thereby draw forth together with the blood that dull and grosse humour whence Physitians learned to use letting blood to cure the dimnesse of the eyes The Gullie-gut when he is full of meat he pitcheth himself betwixt two trees so to force out excrements CHAP. XI That the likeness of things sheweth their secret vertues WHo so looks into the writings of the Ancients namely Hermes Orpheus Zoroastres Harpocration and other such like skilful men as have invented and registred the secrecies of this Art shall find that they gathered all from that likenesse of seeds fruits flowers leaves and roots as also of the stats metals gems and stones that likenesse I say which these things have to the diseases and parts of a mans body as also of other living creatures and out of those Writers afterward Hippocrates Dioscorides Pliny and the rest câ—lled out as many such secrecies as they found to be true and recorded them in their own books except some certain things which they thought were no secries but either of folloy or of envy accounted them to be ordinary and plain matters I will relate two or three examples of those former secrecies Theophrastus speaking of those herbs that resemble the Scorpion and the Polypus saith That some herbs have a peculiar kind of form as the root of the herb Scorpius called by some Walwort and the root of Polypody for that it is like a Scropion and is good against the sting of him and this is rough and full of hollow partitions like the Polypus and is of force to kill him And in another place he saith That many things are written of the force of plants not without just cause as for example to make fruitful and barren both which the herb Ragge-wort is forcible unto for they grow double a greater and a smaller the greater helps generation the smaller hinders it And this herb is called Testiculus Some herbs are good for procreation of a male and some of a female as the herb which is called Marifica and Foeminipara both are like each other the fruit of the Foeminipara is like the moss of an Olive-tree the fruit of the Maripara is double like a mans stones The fruit of white Ivy will make seed barren but the fruit of Arsemery will make it fertile which fruit is a small grain like to Millet The leaves of the herb Harts-tougue will make a man quite barren if the herb it self be barren for there is Harts-tongue that bears fruit and this will make a man fruitful It is a thing to be noted in a Bur that a flower grows within the roughnesse and prickles of it which doth not shew it self but conceives and brings forth seed within it self much like as Weasils and Vipers do for they bring forth egges within themselves and soon after bring forth young ones so the Bur contains and cherishes and ripens the flower within it self and afterward yeelds fruit But these things have both the active and passive parts of generation Dioscorides writeth That the herb Scorpius resembleth the tail of the Scorpion and is good against his bitings So he saith that the herb Dragon both the greater and the less is full of speckles like a Serpents hackle and is a remedy against their hurts so the herb Arisaron in Egypt and Wake-robin and Garlick bear seeds like a Snakes head and so Bugloss and Orchanet bear seeds like a Vipers head and these are good to heal their venemous bitings Likewise Stone-crop and Saxifrage are good to break the stone in a mans bladder and many other such things he there sets down Galen saith That the Lark hath a crested crown of the fashion of the herb Fumiâ—ory and that either of them is good against the Cholick
ground never grows old or barren but is everywhere naturally rank to receive new seed and to produce new and is ever unsatisfied in fruitfulnesse and brings perpetual increase and if nature be alwayes admirable she will seem more wonderful in Plants Copulation was but of one kind here it is almost infinite and not onely every Tree can be ingrafted into every Tree but one Tree may be adulterated with them all Living Creatures of divers kinds were not easily produced and those that come from other Countries were hard to get here is no difficulty at all grafts are fetcht and sent if need be to any part of the world And if diversity of Creatures are made in Africa by their copulating when they meet at the Rivers that so new creatures are alwayes produced here in Italy where the Air is alwayes calme and the Climate very indulgent strange and wilde plants find a good harbour and ground to grow in which is the mother and nourisher of all and so fruitful to produce new and diversity of plants that it can hardly be exhausted And we can better write of them and know the truth more then others because we have them still before our eyes and an opportunity to consider of their effects And if our Ancestors found many new things we by adding to theirs have found many more and shall produce more excellent things overpassing them because daily by our art or by chance by nature or new experience new plants are made Diodorus writes that the Vine at first was but one and that was wilde but now by the help of Bacchus alone from the quality of the ground the nature of the climate and the art of planting it is varied into many kinds that it were madnesse to number them up and not worth our time Nature brought forth but one kind of Pear-tree now so many mens names are honoured by it that one is called Decumana another Dolabelliana and another is named from Decumius and Dolabella The same thing is observed in Figges of Livy and Pompey Quinces are of many kinds some called Mariana from Marius Manliana from Manlius Appiana Claudiana from Appius Claudius Cestiana from Cestius their varieties have made the Authers names immortal What shall I say of Laurel cherries found in Pliny his time what of Citrons which as Athenaeus saith were too sharp to eat in the days of Theophrastus and the ancestors of Plutark and Pliny but Palladius made them to become sweet What of the Peach and Almond-peach Nuts fruits our fore-fathers knew not yet now are they eaten being pleasant and admirable what of Clove-gilliflowers that the Gardrers Art hath made so dainty and sweet scented and so of other plants I have everywhere set down in this work Our Naples abounds so with them that we would not go forth to see the Orchards of the Hesperides Alcinus Semiramis and at Memphis that were made to hang above ground But I shall briefly and plainly relate the History CHAP. I. How new kinds of Plants may be generated of putrefaction AS we have shewed before that new kinds of Living Creatures may be generated of putrefaction so to proceed in the same order as we have begun we will now shew that new kinds of Plants may grow up of their own accord without any help of seed or such like The Antients questionless were of opinion that divers plants were generated of the earth and water mixt together and that particular places did yield certain particular plants We rehearsed the opinion of Diogenes before who held that plants are generated of water putrified in it self and a little earth tempered therewith Theophrastus held that the rain causeth much putrefaction and alteration in the earth and thereby plants may be nourished the Sun working upon it with his heating and with his drying operation They write also that the ground when it is stirred brings forth such kinds of Plants alwaies as are usuall in the same place In the Isle Creta the ground is of that nature that if it be stirred anywhere and no other thing sown or planted in it it will of it self bring forth a Cypresse-tree and their tilled lands those that are somewhat moist when they lie fallow bring forth thistles So the herb Laser in Africa is generated of a kind of pitchy or clammy rain and thick dirt and the herb will shew it self out of the earth presently after the rain is fallen Pliny said that the waters which fall from above are the cause of every thing that grows upon the earth nature shewing therein her admirable work and power and many such things they report which we have spoken of in the books of the knowledge of Plants And I my self have oft-times by experience proved that ground digged out from under the lowest foundations of certain houses and the bottom of some pits and laid open in some small vessel to the force of the Sun hath brought forth divers kinds of Plants And whereas I had oftentimes partly for my own pleasure and partly to search into the works of Nature sought out and gathered together earths of divers kinds I laid them abroad in the Sun and watered them often with a little sprinkling and found thereby that a fine light earth would bring forth herbs that had slight stalkes like a rush and leaves full of fine little ragges and likewise that a rough and stiff earth full of holes would bring forth a slight herbe hard as wood and full of crevises In like manner if I took of the earth that had been digged out of the thick woods or out of moist places or out of the holes that are in hollow stones it would bring forth herbs that had smooth blewish stalkes and leaves full of juice and substance such as Peny-wort Purslane Senegreek and Stone-croppe We made trial also of some kinds of earth that had been farre fetcht such as they had used for the ballast of their Shippes and we found such herbs generated thereof as we knew not what they were Nay further also even out of very roots and barks of Trees and rotten seeds powned and buried and there macecrated with water we have brought forth in a manner the very same herbs as out of an Oken root the herb Polypody and Oak-fern and Splenewort or at least such herbs as did resemble those both in making and in properties What should I here rehearse how many kinds of toad-stools and puffs we have produced yea of every several mixture of putrified things so many several kinds have been generated All which I would here have set down if I could have reduced them into any method or else if such plants had been produced as I intended but those came that were never sought for But happily I shall hereafter if God will write of these things for the delight and speculation and profit of the more curious for t which I have neither time nor leisure now to mention seeing this work is ruffled up in
Swins-dung upon it and then when you have cast earth upon that water it with mans Urine Columella saith If you have a Pomegranate-tree that bears a sharp and a sowre fruit this is your way to amend it You must cover the roots with Swins-dung and mans ordure and water them with mans Urine that hath stood long in some vessel and so it will yield you for the first years a fruit that tastes somewhat like wine and afterward a sweet and pleasant Pomegranate Pliny reporteth the very same thing out of the very same Authors Anatolius shews How to make an Apple-tree become sweeter and that is by watering it continually with Urine which is a thing very comfortable to an Apple-tree Some do use Goats-dung and the Lees or dregs of old wine applying them to the roots of the Apple-tree and thereby cause it to bear a sweeter fruit Theophrastus saith If you water an Apple-tree with warm water in the Spring time iâ— will become better The like applications being used to Herbs will make them sweeter also As for example sake we may procure Sweet Endive There be many things which being watered with salt liquors do forsake their bitternesse and become sweet Of which sort Endive is one and therefore if we would have sweet Endive Theophrastus willeth us to water it with some salt liquor or else to set it in some salt places The like practise will procure Sweet Coleworts And therefore the Aegyptians do mix water and Nitre together and sprinkle it upon Coleworts that they may be sweet And hence it is that the best Coleworts are they which are planted in salt grounds for the saltnesse either of the ground where it is set or of the liquor wherewith it is watered doth abate and take away the tartnesse and natural saltnesse of the Coleworts In like manner if you would procure Sweet Betony Theophâ—astus counselleth you to water them with salt liquor and so they will be better Which very same things Pliny reporteth out of the same Author Likewise you may procure Sweet Rochet such as will yeeld leaves that shall be more toothsome if you water it with salt liquor There is another sleight in husbanding of Pot-herbs whereby they may be produced fitter to be eaten and this is by cropping the stalks of them Basil will grow the sweeter if you crop the stalk of it for at the second springing the stalk will be sweeter and pleasanter a most evident reason whereof is assigned by Theophrastus So Lettice will be the sweeter at the second springing Theophrastus saith that the sweetest Lettice springs up after the cropping of the first tops for the first tops of their first springing are full of a milky kind of juice which is not so pleasant because that it is not throughly concocted but they which grow at the second springing if you take them when they are young and tender will be far sweeter He shews also how Leeks may be made sweeter by cropping them once or twice and afterward let them grow the cause whereof he hath assigned in his book of causes namely that their first shooting up is the weakest and the most unperfect The like is to be thought and practised in other Pot-herbs for the cropping or cutting off doth make the second sprouts to be the sweeter almost in all herbs There are also divers other sleights in husbanding and dressing of such Pot-herbs whereby they may be made sweeter to be eaten As for example Garlick may be made sweeter for Sotion is perswaded that if you break the Cloves of Garlick before you set them or else supple them with the Lees of oyle when you do set them they will gather and yield a far sweeter relish By another sleight far differing from this Onions may be made sweeter for we must consider that divers things do exercise a mutual discord or agreement concord of natures toward each other whereby they either help one another if their natures agree or if their natures dissent they hurt and destroy one another Nuts and Onions have a sympathy or agreement of nature and therefore if you lay up Nuts amongst Onions the Onions will cause the Nuts to last the longer in liew of which kindness Nuts do gratifie Onions with another good turn for they ease the Onions of their sharpnesse as Palladius hath observed CHAP. XVIII How fruits that are in their growing may be made to receive and resemble all figures and impressions whatsoever MAny things do fall out by chance and hap-hazard as they say which an ingenious man lighting upon doth by his great industry and often experiments that he makes of them turn and apply to very good use Whence it is that the Poet saith manifold experience and much labour and practice sets a broach to the world many new arts and rare devices And because the most part are not acquainted with the cause of such things thence it is that they are esteemed to be miraculous and to come to passe besides Natures rule We have oftentimes seen in Citrons divers kinds of stamps and impressions which were made there by chance as by the hitting of some carved matter or any stick or such like which hath caused the same impressions whence the wit of man hath devised to cause divers kinds of fruits to grow up with divers kinds of figures on them If you take an earthen vessel and put-into it an apple that is very young as it hangs upon the Tree growing the Apple will grow to fill up his earthen case and will be of any form whatsoever you would desire if you make the case accordingly Also if you pown any colours and bray them together and dispose of them in places convenient on the fruit on the inside of the case the fruits will wear and expresse the same colours as if they were natural unto them Whence it cometh to passe that oftentimes the yellow Quince is made to grow like a mans head having in it the lively resemblance of white teeth purple cheeks black eyes and in all points expressing the form and colour of a mans head without any greenesse at all which is the natural colour of that fruit whiles it is in growing And this is the sleight that Africanus prescribes whereby A Citron may be made to grow in the likenesse of a mans head or the head of an horse or any other living Creature You must take some Potters clay or soft morter and fashion it to the bignesse of a Citron that is at his full growth but you must cleave it round about with a sharp instrument so that the fruit may be taken out of it handsomly and yet in the mean space the sides of the case must be so closely and firmly joyned together that the fruit growing on may not break it open If the counterfeit or case which you make be of wood then you must first make it hollow within if it be of clay you may clap it on as it is so that
iron tool and still as the leaves begin to buâ— forth you must take red chalk and blend it with Lees of oyle and mans dungâ— and therewithal cover the roots of the Tree and by this means the Tree wilâ— bear more store of fruit and besides the fruit will be a fuller and better fruit Pliny and Palladius record the same experiment out of the same Author When the Fig-tree begins to shew her leaves if you would have it yeeld you more and better fruit you must cut off the very tops of them when the bud begins to shew it self or if not so yet you must besure at the least to cutoff that top which groweth out of the midst of the Tree Palladius writes that some have reported that the Mulberry-tree will bear more and better fruit if you bore thorough the stock of the Tree in divers places and into every hole beat in a wedge into some of the holes wedges made of the Turpentine-tree and into some of them wedges made of the Mastick-tree Didymus saith that The Palm or Date-tree and the Damosin tree will grow to be of a larger and good-lier assize if you take the Lees of old Wine and after you have strained them water the roots therewith And he saith that it will take the better effect if you cast upon it a little salt ever now and then So The Myrtle-tree will have a goodlier leaf and also yield a better fruit if you plant it among Roses for the Myrtle-tree delighteth to be consorted with the Rose and thereby becomes more fruitful as Didymus reporteth So Rue will grow tenderer and more flourishing if it be engraffed into a Fig-tree you must only set it into the bark somewhat neer the root that you may cover it with the earth and so you shall have excellent good Rue Plutark in his Sympoâ—iakes commends no Rue but that only which grows very neer the Fig-tree Aristotle in his Problems demanding the cause of this at length concludes that there is such a sympathy and agreement betwixt the Fig-tree and the herb Rue that Rue never grows so fast nor flourishes so well as when it grows under the Fig-tree If you would have Artichocks grow without sharp prickles Varro saith that you must take the Artichock-seed and rub it upon a stone till you have worn it blunt at the top You may cause also Lettice to grow tenderer and more spreading as Palladius shews and Columella Palladius saith that if your Lettice be somewhat hard by reason of some fault either in the seed or place or season you must pluck it out of the earth and set it again and thereby it will wax more tender Columella shews how you may make it spread broader Take a little tile-sheard and lay it upon the middle of the Lettice when it is a little grown up and the burden or weight of the tile-sheard will make it spread very broad Pliny saith that it is meet also to besmear the roots with dung when they set them and as they grow up to rid away their earth from them and to fill up the place with muck Florentinus saith when you have a Lettice growing that hath been transplanted you must rid away the earth from the root after it is grown to be a handful long and then besmear it with some fresh Oxe-dung and then having cast in earth upon it again water it and still as the bud or leafe appears out of the earth cut it off till it grow up stronger and then lay upon it a tile-sheard that hath never been seasoned with any pitch and so you shall have your purpose By the like device you may procure Endive to be tenderer and broader When it is grown up to a pretty bignesse then lay a small tile-sheard on the middle of it and the weight of that will cause the Endive to spread broader So also you procure Coleworts to be more tender if you bedew them with salt water as Theophrastus writes The Aegyptians to make their Coleworts tender do water them with Nitre and Water mixt together So Cucumbers will be tenderer if you steep the seeds in milk before you set them as Columella reporteth If you would have Leeks to grow Cloven the Antients have taught you that first you must sow them very thick and so let them alone for a while but afterward when they are grown then cut them and they will grow cloven Or else you must cut it about some two moneths after it was set and never remove it from the own bed but help it still with water and muck and you shall have your purpose as Palladius saith Now we will speak of some monstrous generations as of the generation of the herb Dragon and of a cloven Onion And first How to produce the herb Dragon It is a received opinion amongst Gardeners that if you take Hemp-seed or Line-seed and engraffe it into an ordinary Onion or else into a Sea-onion as it grows neer the Sea or else into the Radish root thence will grow the herb Dragon which is a notable and famous Sallet-herb But surely howsoever they boast of it that this hath been of entimes done yet I have made sundry trials hereof and still failed of my purpose By the like setting of seeds they shew How to produce cloven Onions by making a hole into an Onion and putting into it a clove of Garlick and so planting it for that will grow to be an Ascalonian or a cloven Onion Now let us see how to make Parsley to grow frizled or curled Theophrastus writes that Parsley will grow frizled if you pave the ground where you have sowed it and ram it in with a roller for then the ground will keep it in so hard that it it must needs grow double Columella saith If you would have Parsley to bear curled leaves you must put your Parsley-seed into a morter and pown it with a Willow pestle and when you have so bruised it wrap it up in linen clouts and so plant it You may effect the same also without any such labour even by rolling a cylinder or roller over it after it is a little grown up wheresoever or howsoever it is sowed Palladius and Pliny record the same experiment out of the same Author I have often-times seen Basil growing with a kind of brush like hairs upon it The seed of withy-winde being planted neer to Basil as soon as it shoots up will presently winde it self round about the stalks of the Basil and by often winding about them will wrap them all into one The like will be effected also if the withy-winde grow elsewhere and a twig of it be brought and planted neer to Basil for by either of these means the Basil will grow so bushy and so thick of hair and that in a very short time that it will be most pleasant to be lookt upon So you may make the Ivy to bear very sightly berries if you burn three shell-fish especially of that kind
grown up you shall commonly finde about an hundred grains in the cods of every stalk Others referre the cause hereof unto the weather as if the fruit were annoyed with over much cold or heat or rain so that the fields are sometimes frozen with cold and sometimes parched with heat whereby they are sometimes more fruitful and sometimes more barren But this cannot be the true reason because that though the weather be never so kindly ye that cannot make one encrease into thirty But not to wander or range any further about we must know that all grains that grow within the ear or the husk are not prolifical that is they are not all fit to yield encrease for God hath appointed some of them for the food and sustenance of living creatures and others for seed There are some grains in an ear which are as it were abortives such as degenerate from their natural kind and will not fructifie at all but rot and waste away into putrefaction There are other grains in an ear such as are easier to be stript out of their husk which are fitter for propagation and are better enabled by nature thereunto Besides that sometimes it falls out that seeds or grains are not planted in due season or if they be yet sometimes the Husbandman doth not bestow that due labour and industry in looking unto them which the kind of the fruit requires Wherefore if we can meet with all these impediments we may procure encrease according to our hearts desire For the seeds will be larger in the roots and when they have spread their roots under the earth of a good length then will they send up a greater number of stems and bring forth good store of ears Therefore you must make choice of your seeds or grains not of the forwardest nor yet of the backwardest because they commonly are weakest but of the middle sort then wash them and cleanse them from all other seeds and besmear them with fat ointments and with the grease of old Goats and let them be continually supplied with sufficient heat and sufficient moisture then lay them in soft and warm mould carefully manured for the livelier that the heat of the mould is the better will the seeds close with it and become more eager to propagation and emorace it more sweetly as the male would do by this female So shall your your seeds be more enlived and bring forth a more legitimate and a larger encrease Let them be planted in the full of the Moon or thereabout for the larger the Moon is the more bountiful encrease she will procure Concerning the Vine you must see that her leaves be not wanting if you would have good store of Wine for if the leaves be away the Vine hath little heart to bear and besides she should be without an issue for her superfluities which commonly the leaves do receive into themselves onely you must pare off those twisted curles that are wont to grow upon it for so her pride being taken away from her the juice will be more delightful and more pleasant THE FOURTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Which teacheth things belonging to House-keeping how to prepare domestical necessaries with a small cost and how to keep them when they are procured The PROEME FRom Animals and Plants we are come to Houshold-affairs there we provided diverstty of new fruits fit for our use now we shall seem to have sowed nothing and produced nothing unless we shew how what we sowed and produced at great charge and pains may be preserved against the cold and injuries of the outward air that they may come forth in their seasons It were the part of a wicked and slothful man carelessly to let that dye and come to nothing which he had provided with so much care and pains wherefore as you were witty to produce them you must be as diligent to preserve them And the Husband-man that stores up fruit shall have good provision for the Winter For saith Marcus Varro they serve for several meats and no man stores them up but to produce them when he hath need of them to defend or use or sell them I shall first set down the inventions of our Ancestors who were very diligent herein for they found sundry things by divers means and faithfully delivered the knowledge of them to posterity Then I shall relate what I know to be true intermixing some of my own inventions and such as I think to be of greatest concernment and that I have often tried I shall besides add some considerations of bread wine and oyle and such as are of great profit for the Husband-man to provide for his family with the lesser cost alwayes setting down the natural causes that they being perfectly known a man may easily invent and make them But to proceed to the work CHAP. I. How Fruits may be long preserved upon their Trees WE will begin with Fruits And whereas fruits and flowers both may be preserved either upon their own mother Tree which bear them or else being pluckt off from it we will first shew how fruits may be preserved upon their own Tree and first rehearse those things which the Ancients have set down concerning this matter and next what we our selves have found out by our own experience Our Ancestors when they would have fruit to last long upon the Tree were wont first of all to bind them to the stock or to the boughs lest any tempest should strike them off or toss them up and down Besides they did intercept that juice from them which should ripen them for there are some kinds of fruits which as soon as ever they be ripe will stay no longer upon the Tree but fall down of themselves though they are not so much as shaken other fruits there are that will stick longer and faster to their hold Besides they were wont to cover them with certain cases or shells as it were thereby guarding them from the injuries of the weather both hot and cold and also from the mouths of devouring birds Wherefore to make Pomegranates hang long upon their Trees Some have wreathed and platted about the fruit the smaller boughs that grow hard by that the rain may not come forcibly upon it to break it or chop it for if it be once bruised or that it do but gape and have any chops in it it will soon perish and when they have so done they tye them fast to the stronger boughs that they may not be shaken and then they bind the Tree about with a kind of broom withes that the Daws or Crows or other birds may not come at the fruit to gnaw it Some do frame earthen cases fit for the fruit and cover the same with strawie morter and let the fruit hang still upon the Tree in them Others do wrap up every one of the Pomegranates in hay or holm and then daube it thick over with morter which hath chopt straw in it and so fasten them to
silver But if you desire To make brass shew it self of a silver colour by rubbing it betwixt your hands as boyes and cozening companions are oftentimes wont to do that if they do but handle any vessels of brass they will make them straightways to glitter like Silver you may use this devise Take Ammoniack-salt and Alome and Salt-peeter of each of them an equal weight and mingle them together and put unto them a small quantity of Silver-dust that hath been filed off then set them all to the fire that they may be thoroughly hot and when the fume or vapour is exhaled from them that they have left reaking make a powder of them and whatsoever brass you cast that powder upon if you do withal either wet it with your own spittle or else by little and little rub it over with your fingers you shall find that they will seem to be of a silver colour But if you would whiten such brass more handsomely and neatly you must take another course You must dissolve a little silver with Aqua fortis and put unto it so much Lees of wine and as much Ammoniack-salt let them so lie together till they be about the thickness of the filth that is rubbed off from a mans body after his sweating then roul it up in some small round balls and so let them wax dry when they are dry if you rub them with your fingers upon any brass or other like metal and still as you rub them moisten them with a little spittle you shall make that which you rub upon to be very like unto silver The very like experiment may be wrought by Quick-silver for this hath a wonderful force in making any metal to become white Now whereas we promised before to teach you not onely how to endue brase or such other metal with a silver colour but also how to preserve and keep the bodies so coloured from returning to their former hiew again you must beware that these bodies which are endued with such a silver colour do not take hurt by any sharp or sowre liquor for either the urine or vineger or the juice of limons or any such tart and sowre liquor wâ—ll cause this colour soon to fade away and so discredit your work and declare the colour of those metals to be false and counterfeit CHAP. IV. Of Iron and how to transform it into a more worthy metal NOw the order of my proceedings requires that I should speak somewhat also concerning Iron for this is a metal which the Wizards of India did highly esteem as having in it self much goodness and being of such a temperature that it may easily be transformed into a more worthy and excellent metal then it self is Notwithstanding some there are which reject this metal as altogether unprofitable because it is so full of gross earthly substance and can hardly be melted in the fire by reason of that firm and setled brimstone which is found in it But if any man would Change Iron into Brass so that no part of the grosse and earthly substance shall remain in it he may easily obtain his purpose by Coppresse or Vitriol It is reported that in the mountain Carpatus an Hill of Pannonia at a certain Town called Smolinitium there is a Lake in which there are three channels full of water and whatsoever Iron is put into those channels it is converted into brass and if the Iron which you cast into them be in small pieces or little clamps presently they are converted into mud or dirt but if that mud be baked and hardened in the fire it will be turned into perfect good brass But there is an artificial means whereby this also may be affected and it is to be done on this wise Take Iron and put into a casting vessel and when it is red hot with the vehement heat of the fire and that it beginneth to melt you must cast upon it by little and little some sprinkling of quick brimstone then you must pour it forth and cast into small rods and beat it with hammers it is very brittle and will easily be broken then dissolve it with Aqua-fortis such as is compounded of vitriol and Alome tempered together set it upon hot cinders till it boil and be dissolved into vapours and so quite vanish away and the subsidence thereof or the rubbish that remains behind if it be reduced into one solid body again will become good brass If you would Make Iron to become white you may effect it by divers and sundry sleights yet let this onely device content you in this matter First you must cleanse and purge your Iron of that dross and refuse that is in it and of that poysoned corruption of rust that it is generally infected withal for it hath more earthly substance and parts in it then any other metal hath insomuch that if you boil it and purge it never so often it will still of it self yield some new excrements To cleanse and purge it this is the best way Take some small thin plates of Iron and make them red hot and then quench them in strong lye and vineger which have been boiled with ordinary Salt and Alome and this you must use to do with them oftentimes till they be somewhat whitened the fragments or scrapings also of Iron you must pown in a morâ—er after they have been steeped in salt and you must bray them together till the salt be quite changed so that there be no blackness left in the liquor of it and till the Iron be cleansed and purged from the dross that is in it When you have thus prepared your Iron you must whiten it on this manner Make a plaister as it were of quick-silver and lead tempered together then pown them into powder and put that powder into an earthen vessel amongst your plates of Iron that you have prepared to be whitened close up the vessel fast and plaister it all over with morter so that there may be no breathing place for any air either to get in or out then put it into the fire and there let it stay for one whole day together and at length encrease your fire that it may be so vehement hot as to melt the Iron for the plaister or confection which was made of lead and Quick-silver will work in the Iron two effects for first it will dispose it to melting that it shall soon be dissolved and secondly it will dispose it to whitening that it shall the sooner receive a glittering colour After all this draw forth your Iron into small thin plates again and proceed the second time in the same course as before till you find that it hath taken so much whitenesse as your purpose was to endue it withal In like manner if you melt it in a vessel that hath holes in the bottom of it and melt with it lead and the Marchasiâ—e or fire-stone and Arsnick and such other things as we spake of before in our experiments
although Dioscorides threatneth nothing but death from the immoderate use of it The same may be made also Of Poppy In a Lohoch Take the Heads of Poppy and cut them cross-ways with a tender hand lest the knife enter too deep let your nail direct the issuing juice into a Glass where let it stand a while and it will congeal The Thebane Poppy is best You may do the same with Nightshade Henbane Of all these together you may make A Sleeping Apple For it is made of Opium Mandrake juice of Hemlock the Seeds of Henbane and adding a little Musk to gain an easier reception of the Smeller these being made up into a ball as big as a mans hand can hold and often smelt to gently close the eyes and binde them with a deep sleep Now shall be shown A wonderful way to make one take a sleeping Medicine in his sleep Those things which we have already spoken of are easily discovered after sleep and bring a suspicion along with them But ouâ— of many of the aforenamed dormitive menstrues there may be extracted a Quintessence which must be kept in Leaden Vessels very closely stop'd that it may not have the least vent lest it should flie out When you would use it uncover it and hold it to a sleeping man's Nostrils whose breath will suck up this subtile essence which will so besiege the Castle of his senses that he will be overwhelmed with a most profound sleep not to be shook of without much labour After sleep no heaviness will remain in his Head nor any suspicion of Art These things are manifest to a wise Physitian to a wicked One obscure CHAP. II. To make a Man out of his senses for a day AFter these Medicines to cause sleep we will speak of those which make meâ— mad the business is almost the same for the same Plants that induce sleep if they be taken in a larger proportion do cause madness But we will not tell those things which breed it for ever onely which may make us sport for a day and afterwards leave no harm We will begin with How to make men mad with Mandrake We have told you That a small dose brings sleep a little more madness a larger death Dioscorides saith That a Drachm of Morion will make one foolish we will easilier do it with Wine which is thus made Take the Roots of Mandrake and but put them into new Wine boyling and bubling up cover it close and let them infuse in a warm place for two months When you would use it give it to somebody to drink and whosoever shall taste it after a deep sleep will be distracted and for a day shall rave but after some sleep will return to his senses again without any harm and it is very pleasant to behold Pray make trial We may do the same With Stramonium or Solanum Manicum The Seeds of which being dried and macerated in Wine the space of a night and a Drachm of it drank in a Glass of Wine but rightly given lest it hurt the mâ—n after a few hours will make one made and present strange visions both pleasant and horrible and of all other sorts as the power of the potion so doth the madness also cease after some sleep without any harm as we said if it were rightly administred We may also infect any kinde of meat with it by strowing thereon three fingers full of the Root reduced into powder it causeth a pleasant kinde of madness for a day but the poysonous quality is allayed by sleep or by washing the Temples and Pulses with Vinegar or juice of Lemmon We may also do the same with another kinde of Solanum called Bella Donna A Drachm of the Root of which amongst other properties hath this that it will make men mad without any hurt so that it is a most pleasant spectacle to behold such mad whimsies and visions which also is cured by sleep but sometimes they refuse to eat Nevertheless we give this praecaution That all those Roots or Seeds which cause the Takers of them to see delightful visions if their Dose be increased will continue this alienation of minde for three days but if it be quadrupled it brings death Wherefore we must proceed cautiously with them I had a Friend who as oft as he pleased knew how To make a man believe he was changed into a Bird or Beast and cause madness at his pleasure For by drinking a certain Potion the man would seem sometimes to be changed into a Fish and flinging out his arms would swim on the Ground sometimes he would seem to skip up and then to dive down again Another would believe himself turned into a Goose and would eat Grass and beat the Ground with his Teeth like a Goose now and then sing and endeavour to clap his Wings And this he did with the aforenamed Plants neither did he exclude Henbane from among his Ingredients extracting the essences by their Menstruum and mix'd some of their Brain Heart Limbs and other parts with them I remember when I was a young man I tried these things on my Chamber-Fellows and their madness still fixed upon something they had eaten and their fancy worked according to the quality of their meat One who had fed lustily upon Beef saw nothing but the formes of Bulls in his imagination and them running at him with their horns and such-like things Another man also by drinking a Poâ—ion flung himself upon the earth and like one ready to be drowned struck forth his legs and arms endeavouring as it were to swim for life but when the strength of the Medicament began to decay like a Shipwrack'd person who had escaped out of the Sea he wrung his Hair and his Clothes to strain the Water out of them and drew his breath as though he took such pains to escape the danger These and many other most pleasant things the curious Enquirer may finde out it is enough for me only to have hinted at the manner of doing them CHAP. III. To cause several kindes of dreams NOw we will endeavour to shew how to cause pleasant sad or true dreams But that we may more certainly effect it it will be good first to know the causes The meat in concoction must be corrupted this must be taken for granted and turned into vapors which being hot and light will naturally ascend and creep through the Veins into the Brain which being always cold condenseth them into moisture as we see Clouds generated in the greater World so by an inward reciprocation they fall down again upon the Heart the principal seat of the senses In the mean while the Head grows full and heavy and is overwhelmed in a deep sleep Whence it comes to pass that the species descending meet and mix with other vapors which make them appear preposterous and monstrous especially in the quiet of the night But in the morning when the excrementitious and foul Blood is separated from the
this the onely bawd to procure him an executorship They smoke themselves with Cumine who disfigure their faces to counterfeit holiness and mortification of their body There is an experiment also whereby any one may know how To cause Sores to arise Take Perwinckle an herb of an intolerable sharpness that is worthily named Flammula bruise it and make it into a plaister and it will in a short space ulcerate and make blisters arise Cantharides beaten with strong water do also raise watry blisters and cause ruptures CHAP. XIV Of Fascination and Preservatives against inchantments NOw I will discourse of inchantment neither will I pass over in silence who they are whom we call Inchanters For if we please to look over the Monuments of Antiquity we shall finde a great many things of that kind delivered down to posterity And the tryal of later ages doth not altogether explode the fame of them neither do I think that it derogateth from the truth of the stories that we cannot draw the true causes of the things into the streight bonds of our reasons because there are many things that altogether impede the enquiry but what I my self judge of others opinions I thought fit here to explicate You may find many things in Theocritus and Virgil of this kind whence that verse arose There 's same I know not whose unlucky eye Bewitcheth my yong Lambs and makes them die Isigonus and Memphodorus say There are some families in Africa that bewitch with their tongue the very Woods which if they do but admire somewhat earnestly or if they praise fair trees growing corn lusty children good horses or fat sheep they presently wither and die of a suddain from no other cause or harm which thing also Solinus affirmeth The same Isigonus saith there are amongst the â—riballians and Illyrians certain men who have two pupils in each eye and do bewitch most deadly with them and kill whatever they look earnestly on especially with angry eyes so pernicious are they and yong children are most subject to their mischief There are such women in Scythia called Bichiae saith Apollonides Philarchus reporteth of another kind called Thibians in Pontus who had two pupils in one eye and in the other the picture of a horse of which Didymus also maketh mention Damon relateth of a poyson in Ethiopia whose sweat would bring a consumption in all bodies it touched and it is manifest that all women which have two pupils in one eye can bewitch with it Cicero writeth of them so Plutarch and Philarchus mention the Paletheobri a Nation inhabiting in part of the Pontick Sea where are Inchanters who are hurtful not onely to children that are tender and weak but to men of full growth who are of a strong and firm body and that they kill with their looks making the persons languish and consume away as in a consumption Neither do they infect those onely who live among them but strangers and those who have the least commerce with them so great is the power and witchcraft of their eyes for though the mischief be often caught in copulation with them yet it is the eyes that work for they send forth spirits which are presently conveyed to the heart of the bewitched and so infect him Thus it cometh to pass That a yong man being full of thin clear hot and sweet blood sendeth forth spirits of the same nature for they are made of the purest blood by the heat of the heart and being light get into the uppermost parts of the body and flye out by the eyes and wound those who are most porous which are fair persons and the most soft bodies With the spirits there is sent out also a certain fiery quality as red and blear-eyes do who make those that look on them fall into the same disease I suffered by such an accident my self for the eye infecteth the air which being infected infecteth another carrying along with it self the vapors of the corrupted blood by the contagion of which the eyes of the beholders are overcast with the like redness So the Wolf maketh a man dumb so the Cockatrice killeth who poysoneth with looking on and giveth venimous wounds with the beams of his eyes which being reflexed upon himself by a looking-glass kill the Author of them So a bright Mirror dreadeth the eyes of an unclean women saith Aristotle and groweth cloudy and dull when she looketh on it by reason that the sanguine vapour is contracted by the smoothness of the glass into one place so that it is spotted with a kind of little mist which is plainly seen and if it be newly gathered there will be hardly wip'd off Which thing never happeneth on a cloth or stone because it penetrateth and sinketh into the one and is dispersed by the inequality of parts in the other But a Mirror being hard and smooth collecteth them entire and being cold condenseth them into a dew In like manner almost if you breath upon a clear glass it will wax moist as it were with a sprinkling of spettle which condensing will drop down so this efflux of beams out of the eyes being the conveyers of spirits strike through the eyes of those they meet and flye to the heart their proper region from whence they rise and there being condensed into blood infect all his inward parts This stranger blood being quite repugnant to the nature of the man infects the rest of him and maketh him sick and there this contagion will continue as long as he hath any warm blood in his body For being a distemper in the blood it will cast him into a continual feaver whereas if it had been a distemper of choler or flegme it would have afflicted him by intervalls But that all things may be more distinctly explained you must know first that there are two kind of Fascinations mentioned by Authors One of Love the other of Envy or Malice If a person be ensnared with the desire of a fair and beautiful woman although he be caught at a distance yet he taketh the poyson in at his eyes and the Image of her beauty settleth in the heart of this Lover kindleth a flame there which will never cease to torment him For the soft blood of the beloved being strayed thither maketh continual representations of her she is present there in her own blood but it cannot settle or rest there for it continually endeavoureth to flye homeward as the blood of a wounded person spirts out on him that giveth the blow Lucretius describeth this excellenty He seeks that body whence his grief he found For humors always flow unto a wound As bruised blood still runs unto the part That 's struck and gathers where it feels the smart So when the murtheress of his heart 's in place Blushes arise and red orespreads his facee But if it be a Fascination of Envy or Malice that hath infected any person it is very dangerous and is found most often in old women
that the souls of the dead did always rest in the grave as the ashes do and that they might not lye in the dark they endeavovred all they could to send out this light that their souls might enjoy light continually Therefore we must think on another experiment and make trial of it But this must be held for a rare and firm principle in Natures shop that the cause of wonders is because there can be no vacuum and the frame of the work will sooner break asunder and all things run to nothing then there can be any such thing Wherefore if a flame were shut up in a glass and all vent-holes stopt close if it could last one moment it would last continually and it were not possible for it to be put out There are many wonders declared in this Book and many more shall be set down that have no other cause But how the flame should be lighted within side this is worth the while to know It must be a liquor or some subtile substance and that will evaporate but little and if then it can be shut up in the glass when the glass is shut it will last always which may easily be performed by burning-glasses fire industry and cunning It cannot be extinguished because the Air can come in nowhere to fill up the emptiness of the Vial The Oyl is always turned into smoke and this being it cannot be dissolved into Air it turns to Oyl and kindleth again and so it will always by course afford fuel for the light You have heard the beginnings now search labour and make trial THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Of tempering Steel THE PROEME I Have taught you concering monstrous Fires and before I part from them I shall treat of Iron Mines for Iron is wrought by Fire not that I intend to handle the Art of it but onely to set down some of the choicest Secrets that are no less necessary for the use of men in those things I have spoken of already besides the things I spake of in my Chymical works Of Iron there are made the best and the worst Instruments for the life of man saith Pliny For we use it for works of Husbandry and building of Houses and we use it for Wars and Slaughters not onely hard by but to shoot with Arrows and Darts and Bullets far off For that man might die the sooner he hath made it swift and hath put wings to Iron I shall teach you the divers tempers of Iron and how to make it soft and hard that it shall not onely cut Iron and other the hardest substances but shall engrave the hardest Porphyr and Marble Stones In brief the force of Iron conquers all things CHAP. I. That Iron by mixture may be made harder IT is apparent by most famous and well-known Experience that Iron will grow more hard by being tempered and be made soft also And when I had sought a long time whether it would grow soft or hard by hot cold moist or dry things I found that hot things would make it hard and soft and so would cold and all the other qualities wherefore somthing else must be thought on to hunt out the causes I found that it will grow hard by its contraries and soft by things that are friendly to it and so I came to Sympathy and Antipathy The Ancients thought it was done by some Superstitious Worship and that there was a Chain of Iron by the River Euphrates that was called Zeugma wherewith Alexander the Great had there bound the Bridge and that the links of it that were new made were grown rusty the other links not being so Pliny and others think That this proceeded from some different qualities it may be some juices or Minerals might run underneath that left some qualities whereby Iron might be made hard or soft He saith But the chief difference is in the water that it is oft plunged into when it is red hot The pre-eminence of Iron that is so profitable hath made some places famous here and there as Bilbilis and Turassio in Spain Comum in Italy yet are there no Iron Mynes there But of all the kindes the Seric Iron bears the Garland in the next place the Parthian nor are there any other kindes of Iron tempered of pure Steel for the rest are mingled Justine the Historian reports That in Gallicia of Spain the chiefest matter for Iron is found but the water there is more fortible then the Iron for the tempering with that makes the Iron more sharp and there is no weapon approved amongst them that is not made of the River Bilbilis or tempered with the water of Chalybes And hence are those people that live neer this River called Chalybes and they are held to have the best Iron Yet Strabo saith That the Chalybes were people in Pontus neer the River Thermodon Virgil speaks And the naked Calybes Iron Then as Pliny saith It is commonly made soft with Oyl and hardened by Water It is a custome to quench thin Bars of Iron in Oyl that they may not grow brittle by being quenched in Water Nothing hath put me forward more to seek higher matters then this certain Experiment That Iron may be made so weak and soft by Oyl that it may be wrested and broken with ones hands and by Water it may be made so hard and stubborn that it will cut Iron like Lead CHAP. II. How Iron will wax soft I Shall first say how Iron may grow soft and become tractable so that one may make Steel like Iron and Iron soft as Lead That which is hard grows soft by fat things as I said and without fat matter by the fire onely as Pliny affirm Iron made red hot in the fire unless you beat it hard it corrupts as if he should say Steel grows soft of it self if it be oft made red hot and left to cool of it self in the fire and so will Iron grow softer I can do the same divers wayes That Iron may grow soft Anoynt Iron with Oyl Wax Asafoetida and lure it over with straw and dung and dry it then let it for one night be made red hot in burning coals When it grows cold of it self you shall finde it soft and tractable Or take Brimstone three parts four parts of Potters Earth powdered mingle these with Oyl to make it soft Then cover the Iron in this well and dry it and bury it in burning coals and as I said you may use Tallow and Butter the same way Iron wire red hot if it cool alone it will be so soft and ductible that you may use them like Flax. There are also soft juices of Herbs and fat as Mallons Bean-Pods and such-like that can soften Iron but they must be hot when the Iron is quenched and Juices not distilled Waters for Iron will grow hard in all cold waters and in liquid Oyl CHAP. III. The temper of Iron must be used upon soft Irons I Have said how Iron may
the force of words and they answered all questions by it as from an Oracle for if they changed their places all should go well and prosper otherwise they should have ill success and they would not change their superstitious belief with reason and experience because they had so believed many years If you will have Money to turn about upon a point I oft have seen Impostors that to cheat women used this fraud that two Schroles of Paper or some other light matter upon a plain should lift up themselves and move alone If you search in Barley you shall finde a small ear of wilde Oates that is black and wrested like the foot of a Locust and if you binde this with wax to the top of a Knife or point of a Stile and shall sprinkle softly some drops of water upon them when it feels the wet it will twist like a Harp string and the Paper will rise and so will Money turn on the point of a Stile If we will Discover theft we may do it thus and recover what is lost There are many superstitions for theft that stand by Natural reasons and Cheaters ascribe them to the vertue of Words There is the Eagle stone so called it is as one great with childe for shake the stone and it rings in the belly If then any one powder this and put it into good bread baked upon the Embers and give it to a Thief the Thief cannot swallow it when he hath chewed it but he must either be choked or discovered for a Thief for he cannot swallow it being baked with that as Dioscorides saith The Natural cause for this is because the powder that is mingled with the bread is so dry that it makes the bread extream dry and like a pumish that it cannot be swallowed when it comes into the throat Adde to this that he who seeks to finde a Thief must say to the franders by whom he suspects that he will work wonders whereupon he that is the Thief hath his throat very dry by reason of the fear and terrour he is in so that he cannot swallow this bread with the powder in it for it will stick to his throat for if he were void of fear he could scarce swallow it There is another cunning invention they write the names of those that are suspected upon Schroles of Paper and make them fast in clay bullets and put them under the water the pellets being well wet open and the light schroles of Paper rise above the water And this causeth the spectators to admire and to suppose it is some diabolical art The clay pellets are made as many as the standers by are and the names writ in the schroles are wrapt up in the pellets for the schroles that are not very fast wrapt in the pellets are not very fast bound in but if you will have them never to open you shall work it well with the schrole and so it will never come forth If you will have Flowers to fall from a Tree When I saw this first I was amazed but I asked the reason and he shewed me it It is a property of Mullens that when in the morning it opens the Flowers if the Plant be shaken gently the Flowers drying by degrees will fall all to the ground and one that sees it will think it comes from Magical Art if he that shakes them off shall mumble some idle words Also Women are made to cast off their clothes and go naked To let nothing pass that Jugglers and Impostors counterfeit They set a Lamp with Characters graved upon it and filled with Hares fat then they mumble forth some words and light it when it burns in the middle of womens company it constrains them all to cast off their clothes and voluntarily to shew themselves naked unto men they behold all their privities that otherwise would be covered and the women will never leave dancing so long as the Lamp burns and this was related to me by men of credit I believe this effect can come from nothing but the Hares fat the force whereof perhaps is venemous and penetrating the brain moves them to this madness Homer saith The Massagerae did the like and that there are Trees whose fruit cast into the fire will make all that are neer to be drunk and foolish for they will presently rise from their seats and fall to leaping and dancing There are Thieves also Who bore through the head of a Pullet with an Aule and yet maintain that she is alive And they say it is done by conjuration and they promise to make a man hard by this that he cannot be wounded for with some Characters fraudulently invented and bound under the wings they thrust through the head of the Cock with a Bodkin and staying awhile they pull it forth again and the Pullet flies away without any wound or loss of blood When I considered of this and opened the Pullets head I found it to be parted in the middle and the Knife or Bodkin passing through that place hurts not the brain and I have often tried it and found it true There is also A remedy for the Sciatica Great Cato the chief man for all commodity and the Master of all good Arts as Pliny saith In his Books of Husbandry he used some charms against the pains of the Sciatica saying that if any thing be dislocated you may charm it whole again by this means Take a green Reed four or five foot long cut it in the middle and let two men hold them to the huclebones Begin to play with another S. F. motas vaeta daries dardaries astataries dissunapiter until such time as they joyn together and shake about your sword when they come together and one toucheth the other take that in your right hand and cut it asunder with your left bind it to the place dislocated or broken and it will be whole See how so worthy a learned man brake forth into such madness nor did he know by his great learning that without the force of Words green Reeds cut long-ways will turn round of themselves and meet if they be pendulous as the wands of Willows and brambles will do Theophrastus gives the reason why they turn round in his Books De Causis Plantarum Moreover we reade in Dioscorides that a Reed with Vinegar applied to the hucklebones will cure the Luxation of the loins without words or superstition CHAP. IX Of some Experiments of a Lamp I Much rejoyced when I found amongst the Ancients that Anaxilaus the Philosopher was wont to make sport with the Snuff of a Candle and the Wick and by such delusions would make mens heads shew like Monsters if we may believe Pliny By taking the venomous matter comes from Mares newly having taken Horse and burning in new Lamps for it will make mens heads seem like Horsheads and such like but because I gave no credit to these things I never cared to try them But take these