Honey a Chrystal Liquor which you must strain out and stop the Pipkin again and bury it as before About a week after view it again and strain out the over-flowing water so the third and fourth time until all the Honey be converted into water which you may see by uncovering the Pipkin distil the Water according to Art and it will yield Water and Oyl easily enough Oyl of Camphire Beat Champhire very small and put it into common Aqua Fortis made of Salt-Peter and Coppress distilled and clarified set the Pot in a Bath or Stove for half a day and you will see a cleer bright Oyl swim on the top of the Water incline the Pot gently and pour it off and clarifie it in a Retort so shall you have a beautiful thin and sweet Oyl Oyl of Paper and Rags Rowl up your Paper like a Pyramide as Grocers do when they lap up any thing to lay by or send abroad clip the edges even and taking hold of the top of it with a pair of Pincers set it on fire with a Candle and while it flameth hold it downward over a broad dish half a finger distant from the bottom so that the smoak may hardly flie out and still as the fire consumes the Paper let your hand sink that may always keep the same distance from the Dish When it is quite burnt you will findâ— a yellow Oyl stinking of burning upon the bottom of the dish Gather it up and reserve it it is excellent to drive away freckles and pimples in womens faces being applied Almost in the same manner Oyl of Wheat Lay your Wheat plain upon a Marble-Morter being turned with the bottom upwards and cover it with a plate of Iron almost red hot and press it hard out of the sides there will be expressed an Oyl of a yellow colour and stinking of burning which is good for the same purposes that which is good to refresh decayed Spirits is prepared another way CHAP. XII How to extract Oyl by Descent THe way is common and vulgar to all for it is done by Ustulation but the Oyls are of a most offensive savor and can be used only in outward Medicines for they are not to be taken inwardly Prepare a Pipkin made of tough Clay and able to endure fire well vernished within that there may be no suspicion of running out let the bottom be full of holes set upon another earthen Pipkin whose mouth is large enough to receive the bottom of the upper Pipkin lute them close together Fill the Pipkin with slices of your VVood cover it and lute it Then dig a hole and set the Pipkins into it and fling in the Earth about it and tread it down close and throw Sand over it two inches thick make a gentle fire just over the Pipkin which you must encrease by degrees until the Pipkin have stood there a whole day After this remove the fire and when the heat is spent dig up the Pipkins and you will finde the Oyl strained down into the lower which you must distil again in a Retort to purifie it from filth To add something to the former invention I always do thus I make a Tressel with Legs of two foot in length There must a hole be bored in the Plank of it to receive the neck of the Limbeck Upon the Tressel fasten an Iron-plate to keep the VVod from burning Underneath about the middle of the Feet fasten a Board upon which the Receiver may stand and meet with the neck of the inversed Vessel which being filled with the materials to be stilled kindle a fire about it Therefore if you would extract Oyl out of Lignum Guaiacum fill it with the Dust of Lignum Guaiacum and lute it close with Straw-Mortar twice or thrice double when it is dried in the Sun put into the neck wire Strings and thrust it through the hole of the Tresse into the mouth of the Receiver and mortar them together Then kindle the fire on the Plate about the body of the Limbeck at some distance at first and by degrees nigher and hotter but let it not be red hot until you think it be all burned then remove the fire and let it rest a while until it be cold and you shall finde in the lower Vessel a black stinking burnt Oyl In this manner is Oyl drawn out of Juniper Cypress and Lignum Aloes but in this last you must use more Art and diligence and a gentle fire because it is mixed in Oyntments CHAP. XIII Of the Extraction of Essences VVE have delivered the several kindes of Extraction of Oyls now we are come to Quintessences the Extraction of which we will here declare The Paracelsians define a Quintessence to be the Form or Spirit or Vertue or Life separated from the dross and elementary impurities of the Body I call it the Life because it cannot be extracted out of the Bones Flesh Marrow Blood and other Members for wanting Life they want also the Quintessence I say Separated from elementary impurities because when the Quintessence is extracted there remaineth only a mass of Elements void of all power for the Power Vertue and Medicinable qualities are not the Elements but in their Essences which yet are Elements and contain the vertue of the Elements in them in the highest degree for being separated from the grosness of their bodies they become spiritual and put forth their power more effectually and strongly when they are freed from them then they could while they were clogged with the Elements They are small in bulk but great in operation The strength of Quintessences is not to be judged by the degrees of their qualities but of their operation for those which soonest and clearliest root out a disease are reckoned in the first degree So the essence of Juniper is reckoned the first degree of operation because it cureth the Leprosie by purging the Blood onely The essence of Ambar in the second because it expelleth poyson by purging the Heart Lungs and Members Antimony in the third because beside the former vertues it also purgeth the Body But Gold of it self alone hath all those vertues and reneweth the Body Wherefore the fourth degree and greatest power is attributed to it Bet how to extract these Essences is a very difficult work for they may be either Oyl or Salt or Water or of Extraction some by Sublimation others by Calcination others by Vinegar Wine Corrosive Waters and such like So that several kinde of menstruums are to be provided according to the nature and temper of things I will set down some Rules for the chusing of proper menstruums Let the menstrum be made of those things which are most agreeable to the things to be extracted and as simple as may but for Essences ought not to be compounded mixed or polluted with any thing be pure simple and immaculate But if there be a necessity of adding some thing let them be separated after extraction If the Essence
makes no ado but his savage fury ceaseth and his strength failes him Hence came that proverb Lupus in fabula the Wolf cometh in the nick which Plato speaks of in his Politicks The Wolf is afraid of the Urchin thence if we wash our mouth and throats with Urchines blood it will make our voice shrill though before it were hoarse and dull like a Wolves voice A Dog and a Wolfe are at great enmity and therefore a Wolves skin put upon any one that is bitten of a mad Dog asswageth the swelling of the humour An Hawk is a deadly enemy to Pigeons but they are defended by the Kastrel which the Hawk cannot abide either to hear or see and this the Pigeons know well enough for wheresoever the Kastrel remains there also will the Pigeon remain thinking themselves safe because of their protector Hence Columella saith That there is a kind of Hawks which the common-people call a Kastrel that builds her nest about houses that is very good to keep away hawks from a Pigeon-house If you take the Kastrels young ones and put them in divers earthen pots and cover the pots close plaister them round about and hang them up in sundry corners of a Pigeon-house the Pigeons will be so far in love with the place that they will never forsake it Hither belongeth that notable Disagreement that is betwixt Garlick and the Load-stone for being smeared about with Garlike it will not draw iron to it as Plutark hath noted and after him Ptolomaeus the Load-stone hath in it a poisonous vertue and Garlick is good against poison but if no man had written of the power of Garlick against the Load-stone yet we might conjecture it to be so because it is good against vipers and mad dogs and poisonous waters So likewise those living creatures that are enemies to poisonous things and swallow them up without danger may shew us that such poisons will cure the bitings and blows of those creatures The Hart and the Serpent are at continual enmity the Serpent as soon as he seeth the Hart gets him into his hole but the Hart draws him out again with the breath of his nostrils and devours him hence it is that the fat and the blood of Harts and the stones that grow in their eyes are ministred as fit remedies against the stinging and biting of serpents Likewise the breath of Elephants draws Serpents out of their dens and they fight with Dragons and therefore the members of Elephants burned drives away Serpents The Storks drive out of the Countreyes where they are Lyzards and sundry kinds of Serpents and other noisome things in the fields and the intrails of them all are good against the Storks The same is done also in Egypt by the bird Ibis That Indian Rat called Ichneumon doth harnsse himself with some of the Lote-tree and so fights against the Asp. The Lamprey fights with Serpents and with her biting kills the Basilisk which is the most poisonous serpent that is So also the crowing of a Cock affrights the Basilisk and he fights with Serpents to defend his hens and the broth of a Cock is a good remedy against the poison of serpents So the Snail and the Eagle The Stellion which is a beast like a Lyzard is an enemy to the Scorpions and therefore the oyle of him being putrified is good to anoint the place which is stricken by the Scorpion The Barbel eats up the Sea-hare and is good against the poison thereof A Swine eats up a Salamander without danger and is good against the poison thereof The Hawk is an enemy to the Chamaeleon and his dung drunken in wine is good against the poison of the Chamaeleon Likewise out of the Sympathies of plants we may gather some secret which is helpful against some kind of hurt The herb Corruda whereof Sperage comes is most fitly planted where Reed grows because they are of much likenesse and neernesse and both of them are inciters to lust The Vine and the Olive-tree do joy in each others company as Africanus writes both of them are very commodious for mens uses In like manner the Morehenne loves the Hart which is given to lust both of their members are inciters to venery The Goat and the Partridge love each other and both these are gooâ— for one and the same remedy So the fish Sargus and the Goat A Dog is most 〈◊〉 to a man and if you lay him to any diseased part of your body he takes away the disease to himself as Pliny reporteth CHAP. VIII That things receive their force and power from Heaven and from the Stars and that thereby many things are wrought I Suppose that no man doubts but that these inferiour things serve their superiours and that the generation and corruption of mutable things every one in his due course and order is over-ruled by the power of those heavenly Natures The Aegyptians who first proved and found out the effects of the heavens because they dwelt in the open Champion-fields where they had continually fair weather and there were no vapours sent up from the earth which might hinder their contemplation of heaven so that they might continually behold the Stars in their brightnesse did therefore wholly bestow themselves in the knowledge of heavenly influences and whereas others that were not so diligent as they stood amazed at the causes of things these men referred all to the heavens and the Stars that all things took their destiny from them and that the influence of heaven bare great sway in all generations and corruptions and thus observing the motions of the stars to and fro they wrought many wonderful things for this was their resolution that to certain hours and set times there were answerable certain aspects of superiour powers whereby all things were effected Ptolomy was of the same minde who reduced the heavenly influences to a certain order and thereby did prognoâ—â—icate many things and he thought the matter so clear that it need not much proof and moreover that the increase and decrease of all plants and all living creatures more or lesse did proceed from the power and stroke of the stars Aristotle finding that the highest motion was the cause and beginning of all things for if that should cease these must needs presently decay saith that it was necessity for this world to be placed very neer and close to the supâ—â—â—our motions that all power might be thence derived and he saw that all this force of inferiour things was caused from the Sun as he himself fitly shews The winding course of the Sun saith he in the oblique circle of the Zodiak causeth the generation and corruption of all transitory things and by his going to and fro distinguisheth times and seasons Plato saith that the circular motions of the heavens are the causes of fruitfulnesse and barrennesse The Sun is the Governour of time and the rule of life Hence Jâ—mâ—lichus following the doctrine of the Aegyptians saith that every
pure and good and become cool and allayed then pure and unmixed and pleasant visions appear Wherefore I thought it not irrational when a man is overwhelmed with drink that vapors should arise participating as well of the Nature of what he hath drank or eat as of the humours which abound in his body that in his sleep he should rejoyce or be much troubled that fires and darkness hail and putrefactions should proceed from Choler Melancholy coâ—d and puâ—rid humors So to dream of killing any one or being besmeared with Blood shews an abundance of Blood and Hippocrates and Galen say We may judge a man to be of a sanguine Complexion by it Hence those who eat windy meats by reason thereof have rough and monstrous dreams meats of thin and small vapours exhilarate the minde with pleasant phantasms So also the outward application of simples doth infect the species while they are a going to the Heart For the Arteries of the body saith Galen while they are dilated do attract into themselves any thing that is next them It will much help too to anoynt the Liver for the Blood passeth upward out of the Stomack by evaporation and runneth to the Liver from the Liver to the Heart Thus the circulating vapors are infected and represent species of the same colour That we may not please the Sleepers onely but also the Waking behold A way to cause merry dreams When you go to bed to eat Balm and you cannot desire more pleasant sights then will appear to you Fields Gardens Trees Flowers Meadows and all the Ground of a pleasant Green and covered with shady Bowers wheresoever you cast your eyes the whole World will appear pleasant and Green Bugloss will do the same and Bows of Poplar so also Oyl of Poplar But To make dark and troublesome dreams we eat Beans and therefore they are abhorred by the Pythagoreans because they cause such dream Phaseoli or French Beans cause the same Lentiles Onyons Garlick Leeks VVeedbine Dorycnium Picnocomum new red VVine these infuse dreames wherein the phantasms are broken crooked angry troubled the person dreaming will seem to be carried in the Air and to see the Rivers and Sea flow under him he shall dream of misfortunes falling death cruel tempests showers of Rain and cloudy dayes the Sun darkned and the Heavens frowning and nothing but fearful apparitions So by anointing the aforesaid places with Sooâ— or any adust matter and Oyl which I add onely to make the other enter the easier into the parts fires lightnings flashings and all things will appear in darkness These are sufficient for I have already shewed in my Book Phytognom how to procure true dreams CHAP. IV. Excellent Remedies for the Eyes HEretofore being much troubled with sore Eyes and become almost blinde when I was given over by Physitians of best account a certain Empyrick undertook me who putting this VVater into my Eye cured me the very same day I might almost say The same hour By Gifts Entreaties Cunning and Money I gained the Secret which I will not think much to set down that every one may use it at their pleasure It is good for Inflammations Blearness Mists Fistula's and such-like and cureth them certainly the second day if not the first If I should set down all those whom I have cured by it I should be too tedious Take two Bottles of Greek-VVine half a Pint of White-Rose-Water of Celendine two Ounces of Fennel Rue Eye-bright as much of Tutty half an Ounce of Cloves as much Sugar-Candy of Roses one Drachm Camphire half a Drachm and as much Aloes Tutty is prepared after this manner Let it be heat and extinguished six times in Rose-water mixed with Greek-Wine but let the water at last be left out powder what are to be powdered finely and mix them with the waters Aloes is incorporated with waters thus because it will not be powered let it be put into a Morâ—ar with a little of the forementioned waters and beat together until it turn to water and swim about in ropings and mix with the waters then put it to the rest Set them all in a Glass-Bottle close covered and waxed up that it do not exhale abroad in the Sun and Dew for forty dayes still shaking them four times in a day at last when it is well sunned set it up and reserve it for your use It must be applied thus In Inflammations Blood-shots and Fistula's let the Patient lie flat on his back and when a drop of this water is put upon his Eye let him open and shut his Eye-lids that the water may run through all the cavities of his Eve Do this twice or thrice in a day and he shall be cured But thus it must be used for A Pearl in the Eye If the Pearl be above or beneath the Cornea make a Powder of Sugar-Candy of Roses burnt Allome and the Bone of a Cuttle-Fish very finely beat and searched exactly and when the Patient goeth to Bed sprinkle a little of this Powder upon his eye and by and by drop some of this water into it and let him shut his Eyes and sleep for he will quickly be cured CHAP. V. To fasten the Teeth I Could finde not any thing in all this Physical Tract of greater value then this Remedy for the Teeth for the water gets in through the Gumms even to the very Nerves of the Teeth and strengthens and fasteneth them yea if they are eaten away it filleth them with Flesh and new cloaths them Moreover it maketh them clean and white and shining like Pearls I know a man who by this onely Receit gained great Riches Take therefore three handfuls of Sage Neâ—tles Rosemary Mallows and the rinde of the Roots of Wall-nut wash them well and beat them also as much of the Flowers of Sage Rosemary Olive and Plantaine Leaves two handfuls of Hypocistis Horehound and the tops of Bramble one pound of the Flower of Mirtle half a pound of the Seed two handfuls of Rose-Buds with their Stalks two drachms of Saunders Coriander prepared and Citron-Pill three drachms of Cinnamon in powder ten of Cypress Nuts five green Pine-Apples two drachms of Bole-Armenick and Mastick Powder them all and infuse them in sharp black Wine and let them macerate three dayes then slightly pressing the Wine out put them into an Alembick and still them with a gentle fire then boyl the distilled water with two ounces of Allome till it be dissolved in a Vâ—ssel close stopt When you would use it suck up some of the water and stir it up and down your mouth until it turn to Forth then spit it out and rub your Teeth with a Linen-cloth It will perform what I have promised for it fasteneth the Teeth and restoreth the Gums that are eroded Now we will deliver other Experiments To fasten the Teeth Macerate the Leaves of Mastick Rosemary Sage and Bramble in Greek-Wine then distil it with a gentle fire through a Retort take a mouthful
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
Neither can any one deny but that the diseases of the minde do distemper the body and that the good disposition of it doth strengthen and corroborate the same and it doth not work this alteration onely in its own body but on others also by how much it stirreth up in the heart inward desires of love and revenge Doth not covetousness grief or love change the colour and disposition Doth not envy cause paleness and meagerness in the body Doth not the longing of the mother imprint the mark of what she desired upon the tender Embryo So when Envy bends her fierce and flaming eyes and the desire of mischief bursts thereout a vehement heat proceedeth from them which infecteth those that stand nigh especially the beautiful they strike them through as with a sword set their entrails on fire and make them wast into a leannness especially if they be of a cholerick or sanguine complexion for the disease is easily fed where the pores are open and the humors thin Nor is it the passions of the mind onely that affecteth the body thus but the body it self as Avicenna proveth may be endued with venimous qualities many are so by Nature so that it cannot seem a wonder if sometimes some are made so by Art The Queen of India sent to Alexander a very beautiful maid anointed and fed with the poyson of Serpents as Aristotle saith and Avicenna from the Testimony of Rufus Galen Writeth of another who eat Henbane without any harm and another Woolf-bane so that a Hen would not come near her And Mithridates as old Histories deliver it to us King of Pontus had so strengthened himself against poyson that when he would have poysoned himself lest he should fall into the hands of the Romans nothing would do him any hurt If you give a Hawk a Hen fed with snakes or lizards flesh or with barly boiled in the broth of them it will make him mew his feathers betimes and many other such things are done which are too long to be recounted So many men are of such a nature that they will cure some diseases onely with their stroaking Many eat Spiders and wilde Olives and care not for the biting of Serpents nor suffer any wasting or consumption if they be of such a nature that their looks or breath will not onely blast men but plants and herbs and any other thing and make them wither away and oftentimes where such kind of creatures are you may find blasted corn poysoned and withered meerly by the contagion of their eyes the breath that cometh from them Do not women in the time of their courses infect cucumbers and melons by touching or looking on them so that they wither Are not children handled with less prejudice by men then women And you will find more women then men witches by reason of their complexion for they are farther distant from a right temper and eat more unwholesome food so that every moneth they are filled with superfluities and purge forth melancholy blood from whence vapors arise and flie out through their eyes poysoning those that stand nigh them and filling them with the same kind of blood Hence sanguine complexioned men and somewhat cholerick who have large shining gray eyes and live chastly for too often copulation exhausteth the moisture who by frequent glances and continual imagination encounter point to point beams to beams eyes to eyes do generally stir up love But why a man is taken by this Fascination with one and not another appeareth by the former and this reason for it happeneth from the intention of the Inchantor who by those spirits or vapors is transmitted into the bewitched person and he receiving them is made like unto him For the infection seizing on his mind and fixing in his imagination becomes a permanent habit and maketh the spirits and blood obedient to it and so bindeth the imagination and inflameth them with the thing beloved Although the mind which opinion is fathered upon Avicen neither doth it want his authority can of its own will and power produce such passions Musaeus will have the eyes to lay the foundation of Love and to be the chief allurements of it And Diogenianus saith That Love is begotten by looks affirming that it is impossible for a man to fall in love unawares So Juvenal placeth that Lover among prodigies Who burnt with Love of her he never saw For the bright glances of the eyes driveth the Object into a kind of madness and teach the rudiments of Love The other parts are scarce any cause of Love but provoke and entice the beholder to stay and gaze a while upon their beauty whilst the eyes wound him for there they say Cupid lieth in ambush with his bowe ready to shoot his arrows into the beholders eyes and set his heart on fire For thy eyes slide in through my eyes saith Apuleius and raise a cruel fire within my heart Now I have discovered the original of it unto you unless you are quite mad you may many ways fortifie your self against it But many one may well wonder considering those diseases which come by infection as the itch scabbiness blear-eyes the plague do infect by sight touching or speaking and presently cause putrefaction why Love's contagion which is the greatest plague of all doth not presently seize upon men and quite consume them Neither doth it infect others onely but sometimes it returneth upon it self and the persons will be ensnared in their own charms It is reported by the Antients of Eutelides that he bewitched himself by reflection in water looking-glasses or fountains which returned his own shadow upon him So that he seemed so beautiful unto himself that falling in love with that wherewith he used to entrap others he lost his former complexion and died a Sacrifice unto his own Beauty So children oftentimes effascinate themselves when their parents attribute it to haggards and witches Now take Some Preservatives against Love There are many prescribed by wise antiquity If you would endeavor to remove the â—charms of love thus you may expel them Turn your face away that she may not asten her eyes on yours nor couple rays with you for you must remove the cause from the place where it useth to make its impression forsake her company avoid idleness employ your mind in business of concernment evacuate blood sweat and other excrements in a large quantity that the infection may also be voided with them A Preservative against Envy If it be the witchcraft of Envy you may know it thus The infected loseth his colour hardly openeth his eyes always hangeth his head down sighs often his heart is ready to break and sheddeth salt and bitter tears without any occasion or sign of evil To disencharm him because the air is corrupted and infected burn sweet persume to purifie the air again and sprinkle him with waters sweetned with cinnamon cloves cypress lignum aloes musk and amber Therefore the old custome is continued
tempered body and free from corruption in which there is nothing deficient nor superfluous so compact and close that it will not onely endure the fire without consumption but will become more bright and refined by it It will also lie under Ground thousands of yeers without contracting any rust neither will it foul the hands like other Metals or hath any ill sent or raste in it Wherefore say they being taken into our Bodies it must needs reduce the Elements and humors into a right temper allay the excessive and supply the defective take away all putrefaction refresh the natural heat purge the blood and encrease it and not onely cure all sicknesses but make us healthy long-lived and almost immortal Rainoldus Raimundus and other Physitians of the best esteem do attriâ—ute to Gold a power to corroborate and strengthen the Heart to dry up superfluities and ill humors to exhilarate and enliven the Spirits with its Splendor and Beauty to strengthen them with its Solidiry temper them with its Equality and preserve them from all diseases and expel Excrements by its Weight by which it confirmeth Youth resâ—oreth Strength retardeth old Age corroborateth the principal Parts openeth the Urinary Vessels and all other passages being stopt cureth the Falling-sickness Madness and Leprosie for which cause Osiander the Divine wore a Chain of Gold about his neck and also Melancholy and is most excellent against Poyson and Infections of the Plague We will now examine whether the old or new Physitians knew the way to prepare it aright to perform these admirable Effects Nicander doth mightily cry up for an Antidote against Poyson Fountain-water in which Gold hath been quenched supposing that it imparteth some of its Vertue to the Water in the extinction Dioscorides Paulus Aegineta and Aëtius affirm the same Avicenna saith That the filings of it helpeth Melancholy and is used also in Medicines for the shedding of the Hair in liquid Medicines or reduced into very fine Powder it is used in Collyriums or Medicines for the Eyes for the pain and trembling of the Heart and other passions of the Minde Pliny useth it burnt in an earthen Pipkin with a treble quantity of Salt whereby it will communicate its Vertue but remain entire and untouched it self He also makes a Decoction of it with Honey Marsilius Ficinus saith It is of a solid substance and therefore must be attenuated that it may penetrate the Body But he is ignorant of the way of it onely he adviseth to give it in Cordial-waters being beaten out into thin Leaves for so the Water will suck out the Vertue of it or else by extinguishing it in Wine There are some of Pliny's Scholars who would have the parts of a Hen laid in melted Gold until it consume it self for the parts of a Hen are Poyson to Gold Wherefore Ficinus mixeth Leaf-Gold in Capon-broath Thus far the Grecians Latines and Arabians have discoursed concerning the Extraction of the Tincture of Gold but they have erred far from the Truth for what a vanity is it to imagine that quenching it in Water can extract the Vertue of it or that the heat of Man's Body though it be liquified and be made potable can draw any thing from it when the force of the most vehement fire is ineffectual and cannot work upon it I have made trial of it in a most violent fire for the space of three months and at last I found it nothing abared in weight but much meliorated in colour and goodness so that the fire which consumeth other things doth make this more perfect How then can it be concocted by the heat of Man's Body which is scarce able to concoct Bread And how can it impart its Vertue by Extinction when neither Aqua Vitae nor any strong Waters can alter the colour or taste of it I will set down what I have seen The later learned Men and curious Inquirers into Nature affirm That the Magistery Secret and Quintessence of Gold consisteth in the Tincture so that the Vertue Power Life and Efficacy of it resideth in the Colour Wherefore it will be no small Secret to know how to extract the Tincture no small labor and pains for those who pretend to speak of it do it so intricately and obscurely that they rather seem to obscure it or not to understand it then to discover or teach it Know therefore that the Tincture cannot be extracted but by perfectly dissolving it in Strong Waters and that it cannot be dissolved as the work requireth in common Aqua Fortis or Royal Waters because the corrosive Salts in them are not perfectly and absolutely dissolved into Water Wherefore you must learn by continual solution and immistion so to distil them that the whole substance of the Salt may be melted which must be done by reiterating the Operation I have informed you what Salts are easie to be separated the which must onely be used in this Work After perfect solution cast in that Menstruum or Water which I have often mentioned for the Extraction of Essences or Colors I have with great joy beheld it attract to it self the Golden Yellow or Red-colour and a white dust settle down to the bottom We must then separate the Salt from the Menstruum dissolve it and let the liquor evaporate away and there will remain true potable Gold the right Tincture and that great Arcanum of Philosophers disguised with so many Riddles so thin that it will easily penetrate the Body and perform those wonders which Antiquity could only promise Tincture of Roses Cut Red Rose-Leaves with a pair of Shears into small pieces lay them in Aqua Vitae and they will presently dye it with a sanguine color After three hours change those Leaves and put in fresh ones until the water become very much coloured then strain it out and let the Liquor evaporate quite away and in the bottom will remain the Tincture of Roses The same may be done with Clove-Gilliflowers We may also do it another more perfect way without Aqua Vitae Fill a wide-mouthed Glass with Red-Rose Leaves set iâ— into a Leaden-Limbeck and fill it with other Roses then set on the Head and kindle the fire whereupon the vapours will arise and fall into the Glass of a sanguine-colour This is a new way of extracting Tinctures which may be used in any coloured Flowers So the Tinctures of Marigolds Violets Bugloss and Succory-Flowers If you extract them the former way the Tincture of Marygolds will be yellow of Bugloss Violets and Succory-Flowers Red because the colours of those Flowers is but thin and superficiary so that it expireth with a little heat and is red underneath Tincture of Orange-Flowers of an excellent sent Cut the Orange-Flowers into small pieces macerate them in Aqua Vitae and when the Water is turned yellow and Flowers have lost their sent change them and put in fresh until the Water become very sweet and well-coloured and somewhat thick then strain it and
that you can scarce know them from Damask Knives Polish a Knife very well as I said and scowre it with Chalk then stir with your hands Chalk mingled with water and touching it with your fingers rub the edge of the Sword that was polished and you shall make marks as you please when you have done dry them at the fire or Sun then you must have a water ready wherein Vitriol is dissolved and smeer that upon it for when the Chalk is gone it will dye it with a black colour After a little stay wet it in water and wash it off where the Chalk was there will be no stain and you will be glad to see the success You may with Chalk make the waving Lines running up and down If any one desires To draw forth Damask Steel for work You may do it thus for without Art it is not to be done Too much heat makes it crumble and cold is stubborn but by Art of broken Swords Knives may be made very handsomely and Wheels and Tables that Silver and Gold wire are drawn through and made even by to be used for weaving Put it gently to the fire that it may grow hot to a Golden colour but put under the fire for ashes Gip calcined and wet with water for without Glp when you hammer it it will swell into bubbles and will flie and come to be dross and refuse CHAP. X. How polished Iron may be preserved from rust IT is so profitable to preserve Iron from rust that many have laboured how to do it with ease Pliny saith That Iron is preserved from rust by Ceruss Gip and liquid Pitch But he shews not how Ceruss may be made Yet those that know how to make Oyl of Ceruss without Vinegar Iron being smeered therewith is easily preserved from rust Some anoynt the Iron with Deers suet and so keep it free from rust but I use the fat substance in the Hoofs of Oxen. THE FOURTEENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick I shall shew some choice things in the Art of Cookery THE PROEME THe Cooks Art hath some choice Secrets that may make Banquets more dainty and full of admiration These I purpose to reveal not that so I might invite Gluttons and Parasites to Luxury but that with small cost and expence I might set forth the curiosities of Art and may give occasion to others thereby to invent greater matters by these The Art consists about eating and drinking I shall first speak of Meats then of Drinks and by the way I shall not omit some merry pass-times that I may recreate the Guests not onely with Banquets but also with Mirth and Delights CHAP. I. How Flesh may be made tender I Shall begin with Flesh and shew hot it may be made tender that Gluttons much desire I shall do it divers ways Some that proceed from the kind of their death others from the secret properties of things and they will grow so tender that they will almost resolve into broth Then how whilest the creatures are yet alive they may be made tender For example How to make Sheeps flesh tender The Flesh of creatures killed by their enemies especially such as they hate and fear will be very tender Zoroaster in his Geoponicks saith that Sheep killed by Wolves and bitten their flesh will be more tender and so the sweeter Plutarch in Symposiacis gives the cause of it Sheeps Flesh he saith bitten by a Wolf becomes the sweeter because the Wolfe by biting makes the Flesh more flaggy and tender For the breath of the Wolfe is so hot that the hardest bones will consume in his stomach and melt and for this cause those things will the sooner corrupt that the Wolfe bites And both Hunters and Cooks can testifie that creatures killed divers ways are diversly affected Some of these are killed at one blow that with one stroke they lye for dead yet others are hardly killed at many blows And which is more wonderful some by a wound given with the Iron weapon have imprinted such a quality upon the creature that it presently corrupted and would not keep sweet one day and others have killed them as suddenly yet no such quality remain'd in the flesh that was killed and it would last some time Moreover that a certain vertue when creatures are slain or dye comes forth to their skins and hair and nails Homer was not ignorant of who writing of skins and thongs A thong saith he of an ox slain by force for the skins of those creatures are tougher and stronger when they dy not by old age or of diseases but are slain On the contrary such as dye by the bitings of Beasts their hoofs will grow black and their hairs fall off and their skins will wither and flag Thus far Plutarch But I think these things are false for how should Sheeps flesh grow tender by the Wolfes breath I understand it not For other creatures that are killed by their enemies and flesh of a contrary nature doth also grow tender where there are no hot vapours But I think that the absence of blood makes the flesh tender for these reasons Quails and Pheasants killed by Hawks are very tender but their hearts are found full of blood and hard within them Deer and Bores killed by Dogs are more tender but harder if by Guns and about the heart the parts are so hard that they can scarce be boiled Fear of death drives the blood to the heart the other parts are bloodless as shall appear by the following experiments As How Geese Ducks Pheasants Quails and other Birds become most tender This is easily done if we hunt them and fly Hawks and other birds of prey at them for whilst they fight they strive to be gone and they are sometime held in the Falcons Tallents and are wounded with divers strokes and this makes them so tender that it is wonderful Wherefore when we would eat crammed Birds we should purposely fly a Hawk at them and being killed by them should grow more tender to be desired So That Ox-flesh may grow tender especially of old Oxen for they are dry and hard and will not easily boil The Butchers set hounds at them and let them prey upon them and they will for some hours defend themselves with their horns at last being overcome by multitudes of Dogs they fall with their ears torn and bit in their skin these brought into the shambles and cut out are more tender than ordinary Some of them fighting openly with Bears and sometimes kill'd by them if any of the body be left it will be so tender that it will melt in a mans mouth We may do the same if we keep creatures sometime in fear of death and the longer you keep them so the tender they will be For To make Hens tender we fright them off from high Towers so we do Turkies Peacocks and when they cannot fly away by the weight of their bodies for fear of death with great pains and shaking of