MAGIA ADAMICA OR The Antiquitie of Magic AND The Descent thereof from Adam downwards proved Whereunto is added a perfect and full Discoverie of the true Coelum Terrae or the Magician's Heavenly Chaos and first Matter of all Things By Eugenius Philalethes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Epict. in Enchirid. LONDON Printed by T. W. for H. B LUNDEN at the Castle in Corn-hill 1650. To my Learned and much Respected friend Mr. MATHEW HARBERT SIR I Know you are not Great there 's a better title you are Good I might have fix'd this Piece to a Pinnacle made the Dedication high but to what purpose Greatness is a Thing I cannot admire in others because I desire it not in my self It is a proud Follie a painted ceremonious Raunt There is nothing Necessarie in it for most men live without it and I may not applie to that which my Reason declines as well as my Fortune The Truth is I know no use of Hog hens and Titulados if they are in an humor to give I am no Beggar to receive I look not any thing Sir but what the Learned are inrich'd withall Judgement and Candor You are a true friend to Both and to my third self This Discourse I shuffl'd up for your spare-houres for it was born in a Vacation when I did not so much labour as play I was indeed necessitated to some Levity for my Adversarie proved so impotent I might not draw out all my forces because I knew not where to employ them You have here a simple Bedlam corrected and whipt for his mad Tricks A certain Master of Arts of Cambridge a Poet in the Loll Trot of Spencer It is suppos'd he is in Love with his Fairie-Queen this hath made him a very Elf in Philosophie He is indeed a scurvie slabbie snotty-snowted thing Hee is troubl'd with a certain Splenetic loosnes hath such squirts of the Mouth his Readers cannot distinguish his Breath from his Breech He is a new kind of Pythonist speakes no man knows what his Bulls have much of his Belly But I have studied a Cure answerable to his Disease I have bin somwhat Corrosive and in defiance to the old Phrase I have wash'd a Moore clean I have put his Hog-noddle in pickle here I present him to the world a Dish of Sous'd Non-sence This is my Subject Sir now I must tell you my Address to your self hath somthing of Duty in it I had no sooner left Milke for Meat but my first Learning came from you Bee pleas'd to accept this small Acknowledgement from Some ten dayes after the Presse was deliverd of my Adversarie's MAURO MANGO Your Pupill servant E. P. From Heliopolis 1650. TO The most Excellently accomplish'd my best of Friends Mr. THOMAS HENSHAW SIR IT was the Quaere of Solomon and it argued the Supremacie of his wisedom What was best for Man to doe all the dayes of his Vanitie under the Sun If I wish my selfe so Wise as to know this great Affaire of Life it is because you are fit to manage it I will not advise you to pleasures to build Houses and plant Vine-yards to inlarge your private Possessions or to multiplie your Gold and Silver These are old Errors like Vitriol to the stone So many false Receipts which Solomon hath tried before you And behold all was vanitie and vexation of Spirit I have sometimes seen Actions as various as they were great and my own sullen Fate hath forc'd me to severall Courses of life but I finde not one hitherto which ends not in Surfets or Satietie Let us fansie a man as fortunate as this world can make him What doth hee doe but move from Bed to Boord and provide for the Circumstances of those two Scenes To day hee eates and drinkes then sleeps that hee may doe the like to morrow A great Happinesse to live by cloying Repetitions and such as have more of Necessity than of a free pleasure This is Idem per Idem and what is held for Absurditie in Reason can not by the same reason be the true perfection of Life I deny not but Temporall blessings conduce to a Temporall Life and by Consequence are pleasing to the Body but if we consider the Soule shee is all this while upon the wing like that Dove sent out of the Ark seeking a place to rest shee is busied in a restless Inquisition and though her Thoughts for want of true Knowledge differ not from Desires yet they sufficiently prove she hath not found her Satisfaction Shew me then but a practice wherein my Soule shall rest without any further Disquisition for this is it which Solomon calls Vexation of Spirit and you shew mee What is Best for Man to doe under the Sun Surely Sir this is not the Philosophers stone neither will I undertake to define it but give me leave to speak to you in the Language of Zoroaster Quaere Tu Animae Canalem I have a better Confidence in your Opinion of mee than to tell you I love you and for my present Boldness you must thank your self you taught me this Familiaritie I here trouble you with a short Discourse the Brokage and weake Remembrances of my former and more intire studies It is no labour'd Peece and indeed no fit Present but I beg your Acceptance as of a Caveat that you may see what unprofitable Affections you have Purchased I propose it not for your Instruction Nature hath already admitted you to her Schoole and I would make you my Judge not my Pupill If therefore amongst your serious and more deare Retirements you can allow this Trifle but some few Minutes and think them not lost you will Perfect my Ambition You will place mee Sir at my full Height and though it were like that of Statius amongst Gods and Stars I shall quickly find the Earth again and with the least Opportunitie present my self Sir Your most humble Servant E. P. On the Author's Vindication and Replie to the scurvie scribling scolding Alazonomastix 'T was well he did assault thee or thy Foe Could not have hit to thy Advantage so what he styles Ignorance is Depth in Sense He thinks there is no skill but Common Fense Had Bacon liv'd in this unknowing Age And seen Experience laugh'd at on the Stage What Tempests would have risen in his Bloud To side an Art which Nature hath made Good Do'st think that Knowledge comes to thee Innate As Preaching on a sudden to thy Pate No sure thou art a simpler Brother fie I must Allarum thee with Hue and Cry What art from Whence a Presbyterian sure An Academic Ratt holy and pure But for thy Soule and Plato tells thee so Thou hast spoil'd that and plaister'd Plato too Just like I. T. thy Poet who doth lend Thee fansies in Cleveland from end to end And not one right apply'd you doe mistake The Stagyrit's Philosophie and make His Logic Magicall what is unknown
which proceeded from the Third Spirit and out of that Water went Aire and Fire But God forbid that I should speak any more of them publickly it is enough that wee Know the Original of the Creature and to whom wee ought to ascribe it The Cabalist when hee would tell us what God did with the Three Mothers useth no other phrase than this Ponderavit Aleph cum omnibus omnia cum Aleph sic de Singulis He weighed saith he Aleph with All and All with Aleph and so he did with the other Mothers This is very plain if you consider the various mixtures of the Elements and their Secret Proportions And so much for the Physicall part of the Cabala I will now shew you the Metaphysicall It is strange to Consider what Unitie of Spirit and Doctrine there is amongst all the Children of Wisdom This proves infallibly that there is an Universall Schoole-master who is Present with all Flesh and whose Principles are ever Uniforme namely the Spirit of God The Cabalists agree with all the world of Magicians That Man in spirituall Mysteries is both Agent and Patient This is plain For Jacobs Ladder is the greatest Mysterie in the Cabala Here wee find two Extreams Jacob is one at the Foot of the Ladder and God is the other who stands above it immittens saith the Jew Formas Influxus in Jacob sive Subjectum Hominem shedding some secret Influx of Spirit upon Jacob who in this place Typifies Man in general The Rounds or steps in the Ladder signifie the middle Natures by which Jacob is united to God Inferiors united to Superiors As for the Angels of whom it is sayd that they ascended Descended by the Ladder their Motion proves they were not of the superior Hierarchie but some other secret Essences for they Ascended first and Descended afterwards but if they had been from above they had Descended first which is Contrarie to the Text And here Reader I would have thee studie Now to return to Jacob it is written of him that he was asleep but this is a Mysticall Speech for it signifies Death namely that Death which the Cabalist calls Mors Osculi or the Death of the Kiss of which I must not speake one Syllable To bee short they agree with us in Arcano Theologiae That no word is efficacious in Magic unlesse it be first quickened by the Word of God This appears out of their Semhamaphores for they hold not the names of Angls effectuall unlesse some name of God as {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be united to them then say they in the power and vertue of those names they may worke An Example hereof wee have in all Extracted names as Vehu-Iah Elem-Iah Jeli-El Sita-El Now this Practice in the Letter was a most subtil Adumbration of the Conjunction of the Substantiall Word or Spirit with the Water See that you understand me rightly for I meane with the Elements and so much for the Truth To Conclude I would have the Reader observe that the false Grammaticall Cabala consists onely in Râ—â—â—â—â—tions of the Alphabet and a Metathesis of Letters in the Text by which means the Scripture hath suffered many Racks and Excoriations As for the true Cabala it useth the Letter onely for Artifice whereby to obscure and hide her Pâ—â—â—â—sicall Secrets as the Egyptians heretofore did use their Hieroglyphics In this Sense the Primitive Professors of this Art had a literal Cabala as it appeares by that wonderfull and most ancient Inscription in the Rock in Mount Horeb. It conteines a Prophecie of the Virgin Mother and her Son Christ Jesus ingraven in Hieroglyphic fram'd by Combination of the Hebrew letters but by whom God onely knows it may be by Moses or Eliâ—ah This is most certain it is to be seen there this day and wee have for it the Testimonies of Thomas Obecinus a most learned Franciscan and Petrus a Valle a Gentleman who travailed both of them into those parts Now that the learning of the Jewes I mean their Cabala was Chimicall and ended in true Physicall performances cannot be better proved than by the Booke of Abraham the Jew wherein hee layd down the Secrets of this Art in Indifferent plaine Termes and Figures and that for the Benefit of his unhappy Country-men when by the wrath of God they were scattered over all the World This Book was accidentally found by Nicholas Flammel a French-man and with the help of it hee attained at last to that miraculous Medicine which Men call the Philosophers stone But let us hear the Monsieur himself describe it There fell into my hands saith he for the Summ of two Florens a gilded Book very old and large It was not of Paper nor Parchment as other books bee but it was made of delicate rindes as it seemed to mee of Tender young Trees The Cover of it was of Brasse well bound all ingraven with Letters or strange figures and for my part I think they might well bee Greek Characters or some such ancient language Sure I am I could not read them and I know well they were not Notes nor Letters of the Latine nor of the Gaule for of them I understood a little As for that which was within it the Bark leaves were ingraven and with admirable diligence written with a point of Jron in faire and neat Latin letters coloured It contained thrice Seven leaves for so were the leaves counted at the top and alwayes every Seventh leafe was without any writing but instead thereof upon the first seventh leaf there was painted a Virgin and Serpents swallowing her up In the Second Seventh a Crosse where a Serpent was Crucified and in the last Seventh there were painted Deserts or Wildernesses in the middest whereof ran many faire Fountains from whence there issued forth a Number of Serpents which ran up and down here and there Upon the first of the Leaves was written in great Capitall letters of gold ABRAHAM THE JEW PRINCE PRIEST LEVIT ASTROLOGER AND PHILOSOPHER TO THE NATION OF THE JEWES BY THE WRATH OF GOD DISPERSED AMONG THE GAULES SENDETH HEALTH After this it was filled with great Execrations and Curses with this word Maranatha which was often repeated there against every person that should cast his eyes upon it if hee were not Sacrificer or Scribe Hee that sold me this Booke knew not what it was worth no more than I when I bought it I believe it had been stolne or taken by violence from the miserable Jewes or found hid in some part of the Ancient place of their Habitation Within the Booke in the Second leafe hee comforted his Nation counselling them to fly Vices and above all Idolatrie attending with sweet patience the Comming of the Messiah who should vanquish all the Kings of the Earth and should reigne with his people in glorie aeternally Without doubt this had been some wise and understanding Man In the third
the Death of the Compound Hence they wisely gathered that to minister Vegetables Animals or Minerals for Physic was a meer madness for even these also had their own Impurities and Diseases and required some Medicine to cleanse them Upon this Adviso they resolved God without all Question being their Guide to practise on the Chaos it self they opened it purified it united what they had formerly separated and fed it with a twofold Fire Thick and Thin till they brought it to the immortal Extreme and made it a spirituall heavenly Body This was their Physic this was their Magic In this performance they saw the Image of that face which Zoroaster calls Triadis Vultus ante Essentiam c. They perfectly knew the Secundea which contains all things in her naturally as God contains all things in himself spiritually They saw that the Life of all things here below was a Thick Fire or fire imprisoned and incorporated in a certaine incombustible Aereall moysture They found moreover that this fire was originally derived from Heaven and in this sense Heaven is styl'd in the Oracles Ignis Ignis Derivatio Ignis Penu In a word they saw with their Eyes that Nature was Male and Female Ignis ruber super Dorsum Ignis Candidi as the Cabalists expresse it A certain Fire of a most deep red Colour working on a most white heavy salacious Water which Water also is Fire inwardly but outwardly very cold By this practice it was manifested unto them that God himself was Fire according to that of Eximidius in Turba Omnium rerum Initium esse Naturam quandam eamque perpetuam infinitam omnia foventem Coquentemque The Beginning of all things sayth he is a Certain Nature and that eternall and infinite cherishing and heating all Things The truth is Life which is nothing else but Light and heat proceeded originally from God and did apply to the Chaos which is elegantly call'd by Zoroaster Fons fontium fontium cunctorum Matrix continens cuncta The Fountain of fountains and of all fountains The Matrix containing all Things Wee see by Experience that all Individuals live not onely by their own heat but they are preserved by the outward universal heat which is the life of the great world Even so truly the great world it self lives not altogether by that heat which God hath inclosed in the parts thereof but it is praeserved by the circumfused influent heat of the Deitie For above the Heavens God is manifested like an infinite burning world of Light and Fire so that hee overlooks all that he hath made and the whole Fabric stands in his heat and Light as a man stands here on Earth in the Sun-shine I say then that the God of Nature employes himself in a perpetuall Coction and this not onely to generate but to preserve that which hath been generated for his spirit and heat coagulat that which is Thin rarifie that which is too grosse quicken the dead parts and cherish the cold There is indeed one operation of heat whose method is vitall and far more mysterious than the rest they that have use for it must studie it I have for my part spoken all that I intend to speak and though my Book may prove fruitless to many because not understood yet some few may be of that Spirit as to comprehend it Amplae mentis ampla flamma sayd the great Chaldaean But because I will not leave thee without some Satisfaction I advise thee to take the Moone of the firmament which is a middle nature and place her so that every part of her may be in two Elements at one and the same time these Elements also must equally attend her Body not one further off not one neerer than the other In the regulating of these two there is a twofold Geometrie to be observed Natural and Aâ—tâ—ficial But I may speak no more The true Furnace is a little simple shell thou mayst easily carry it in one of thy hands The Glasse is one and no more but some Philosophers have used two and so mayst thou As for the work it self it is no way troublesome a Lady may reade the Arcadia and at the same time attend this Philosophie without disturbing her fansie For my part I think women are fitter for it than men for in such things they are more neat and patient being used to a small Chimistrie of Sack-possets and other finicall sugar-sops Concerning the Effects of this Medicine I shall not speak any thing at this time hee that desires to know them let him reade the Revelation of Paracelsus a Discourse altogether incomparable and in very truth miraculous And here without any partialitie I shall give my Judgement of honest Hohenheim I find in the rest of his workes and especially where hee falls on the stone a great many false Processes but his Doctrine of it in Generall is very sound The truth is hee had some Pride to the Justice of his Spleen and in many places hee hath err'd of purpose not caring what Bones hee threw before the Schoole-men for hee was a Pylot of Guadalcana and sayl'd sometimes in his Rio de la recriation But I had almost forgot to tell thee that which is all in all and it is the greatest Difficultie in all the Art namely the fire It is a close ayrie circular bright fire the Philosophers call it their Sun and the glasse must stand in the shade It makes not the matter to vapour no not so much as to sweat it digests onely with a still piercing vitall heat It is continuall and therefore at last alters the Chaos and corrupts it The Proportion and Regiment of it is very Scrupulous but the best rule to know it by is that of the Synod facite ne Easianus volet ante Insequentem Let not the Bird fly before the Fowler make it sit whiles you give fire and then you are sure of your Prey For a Cloze I must tell thee the Philosophers call'd this Fire their Balneum but it is Balneum Naturae a Naturall Bath not an Artificiall one for it is not any kind of Water but a certain subtill temperate moysture which compasseth the Glasse and feeds their Sun or Fire In a word without this Bath nothing in the world is generated Now that thou mayst the better understand what Degree of fire is requisit for the work consider the Generation of Man or any other Creature whatsoever It is not Kitchin fire nor feaver that works upon the Sperm in the Womb but a most temperate moyst natural heat which proceeds from the very life of the Mother It is just so here Our Matter is a most delicate Substance and tender like the Animal sperme for it is almost a living thing nay in very truth it hath some small portion of life for Nature doth produce some Animals out of it For this very reason the least violence destroyes it and prevents all generation for if it be over-heated but for
so compact but every Sophister concludes it is no Simple but shee is so much One that no man believes she is more Shee yeelds to nothing but Love for her End is Generation and that was never yet perform'd by Violence Hee that knows how to wanton and toy with her the same shall receive all her Treasures First shee shedds at her Nipples a thick heavy water but white as any snow The Philosophers call it Virgin-milk Secondly she gives him Bloud from her very heart it is a quick heavenly fire some impioperly call it their sulphur Thirdly and lastly shee presents him with a secret Chrystall of more worth and lustie than the white Rock and all her Rosials This is shee and these are her Favours Catch her if you can To this Character and Discoverie of my owne I shall adde some more Descriptions as I find her â—imm'd and drest by her other Lovers Some few but such as knew her very well have written that shee is not onely One and Tirce but withall Foure and Five and this Truth is Essentiall The Titles they have bestowed upon her are divers They call her their Catholic Magnesia and the Sperme of the World out of which all Naturall things are generated Her Birth say they is Singular and not without a miracle her Complexion heavenly and different from her Parents Her Body also in some sense is Incorruptible and the Common Elements cannot destroy it neither will shee mix with them Essentially In the outward shape or figure shee resembles a stone and yet is no stone for they call her their white Gum and Water of their Sea water of Life most pure and most blessed water and yet they minde not water of the Clouds or Rain-water nor water of the Wel nor Dew but a certain thick permanent saltish water a water that is drie and wetts not the hand a viscous slimie water generated out of the saltish fatnesse of the Earth They call her also their twofold Mercurie and Azoth begotten by the Influences of two Globes Coelestiall and Terrestriall Moreover they affirme her to bee of that Nature that no fire can destroy her which of all other Descriptions is most true for shee is fire her self having in her a portion of the universall fire of Nature and a secret Coelestiall spirit which spirit is animated and quickened by God himself wherefore also they call her their most blessed stone Lastly they say shee is a middle nature between thick and thin neither altogether Earthy nor altogether Firie but a mean aereall substance to bee found every where and every time of the year This is enough but that I may speak something my self in plain Termes I say shee is a very salt but extreme soft and somewhat thin and fluid not so hard not so thick as common extracted Salts for shee is none of them nor any kind of Salt whatsoever that man can make Shee is a sperme that Nature her self drawes out of the Elements without the help of Art man may find it where Nature leaves it it is not of his office to make the sperme nor to extract it it is already made and wants nothing but a Matrix and heat convenient for Generation Now should you consider with your selves where Nature leaves the seed and yet many are so dull they know not how to work when they are told what they must doe Wee see in Animal Generations the sperme parts not from both the Parents for it remaines with the Female where it is perfected In the great world though all the Elements contribute to the Composure of the sperme yet the sperme parts not from all the Elements but remaines with the Earth or with the Water though more immediatly with the one than with the other Let not your Thoughts feed now on the Phlegmatic indigested Vomits of Aristotle look on the green youthfull and flowrie Bosome of the Earth Consider what a vast Universall Receptacle this Element is The Starrs and Plarets over-look her and though they may not descend hither themselves they shed down their golden Locks like so many Bracolets and Tokens of their Love The Sun is perpetually busie brings his Fire round about her as if he would sublime something from her bosom and rob her of some secret inclosed Jewell Is there any thing lost since the Creation Would'st thou know his very bed and his pillow It is Earth How many Cities dost thou think have perished by the Sword how many by Earth-quakes and how many by the Deluge Thou doest perhaps desire to know where they are at this present believe it they have one common Sepulcher what was once their Mother is now their Tombe All things return to that place from whence they came and that very place is Earth If thou hast but leasure run over the Alphabet of Nature examine every Letter I mean every particular Creature in her Booke What becomes of her Grasse her Corne her Herbs her Flowers True it is both Man and beast doe use them but this onely by the way for they rest not till they come to Earth again In this Element they had their first and in this will they have their last station Think if other Vanities will give thee leave on all those Generations that went before thee and anticipate all those that shall come after thee Where are those Beauties the Times past have produced and what will become of those that shall appear in future Ages They will all to the same ' Dust they have one Common house and there is no Familie so numerous as that of the Grave Doe but look on the Daily sports of Nature her Clouds and mists the Scaeue and Pageantrie of the Aire Even these Momentary Things retreat to the Closet of the Earth If the Sun makes her drie shee can drink as fast what gets up in Cloudes comes down in Water the Earth swallows up ail and like that Philosophicall Dragon eats her own Tayle The wise Poets saw this and in their mysticall language call'd the Earth Saturne telling us withall shee did feed on her own Children Verily there is more Truth in their stately Verse than in Aristotle's dull Prose for hee was a blinde beast and Malice made him so But to proceed a little further with you I wish you to concoct what you reade to dwell a little upon Earth not to fly up presently and admire the Meteors of your own Braines The Earth you know in the Winter time is a dull dark dead Thing a contemptible frozen phlegmatick Lump But towards the Spring and Fomentation of the Sun what rare Pearles are there in this Dung-hill what glorious Colours and tinctures doth she discover a pure eternall green overspreads her and this attended with innumerable other Beauties Roses red and white golden Lilies Azure Violets the Bleeding Hyacinths with their severall coelestiall odours and Spices If you will be advised by me Learn from whence the Earth hath these invisible Treasures This Annuall
Flora which appears not without the Complements of the Sun Behold I will tell you as plainly as I may There are in the world two Extremes Matter and Spirit one of these I can assure you is earth The Influences of the spirit animate and quicken the matter and in the Material Extreme the seed of the spirit is to be found In middle Natures as Fire Aire and Water this Seed stayes not for they are but Dispenseros or Media which convey it from one extreme to the other from the Spirit to the Matter that is to the Earth But stay my friend this Intelligence hath somewhat stirr'd you and now you come on so furiously as if you would rifle the Cabinet Give me leave to put you back I mind not this Common faeculent impure Earth that falls not within my Discourse but as it makes for your Manuduction That which I speak of is a Mysterie it is Coelum Terrae and Terra Coeli not this dirt and dust but a most Secret Coelestiall Invisible Earth Raymund Lullie in his Compendium of Alchimie calls the Principles of Art Magic Spiritus fugitivos in Aere condensatos in forma Monstrorum Diversorum Animalium etiam Hominum qui vadunt sicut Nubes modo hùc modo illùc Certain fugitive spirits condensed in the Ayre in the shape of Divers Monsters Beasta and Men which move like Cloudes hither and thither As for the Sense of our Spaniard I refer it to his Readers let them make the most of it This is true As the Ayre and all the Volatile Substances in it are restlesse even so it is with the first Matter The eye of Man never saw her twice under one and the same shape but as Cloudes driven by the winde are forced to this and that figure but cannot possibly retain one constant forme so is shee persecuted by the fire of Nature for this fire and this water are like two Lovers they no sooner meet but presently they play and toy and this Game will not over till some new Babee is generated I have oftentimes admired their subtil perpetual Motion for at all Times and in all places these two are busie which occasioned that Notable sentence of Trismegistus That Action was the Life of God But most excellent and Magisterial is that Oracle of Marcus Antoninus who in his Discourse to himself speaks indeed things worthy of himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Nature saith he of the Universe delights not in any Thing so much as to alter all Things and then to make the like again This is her Tick Tack shee playes one Game to begin another The matter is placed before her like a peece of Wax and shee shapes it to all formes and figures Now shee makes a Bird now a Beast now a Flowre then a Frog and shee is pleas'd with her own Magicall performances as men are with their own fansies Hence shee is call'd of Orpheus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Mother that makes many Things and ordaines strange shapes or figures Neither doth shee as some sinfull Parents doe who having their pleasure care not for their Child shee loves them still after shee hath made them hath an eye over them all and provides even for her Sparrowes IT is strange to consider that shee workes as well privatly as publicly not onely in Gardens where Ladyes may smell her perfumes but in remote Solitudes and Deserts The Truth is shee seeks not to please others so much as her self wherefore many of her works and those the Choysest never come to Light Wee see little Children who are newly come from under her hand will be dabling in ' Dirt and Water and other idle sports affected by none but Themselves The Reason is they are not as yet Captivated which makes them seek their own pleasures But when they come to Age then Love or Profit makes them square their Actions according to other mens Desires Some Cockney claps his Revenues on his backe but his Galantrie is spoil'd if his Mistris doth not observe it Another fights but his Victory is lost if it be not Printed it is the world must heare of his Valour Now Nature is a free spirit that seeks no Applause shee observes none more than her self but is pleased with her own Magic as Philosophers are with their Secret Philosophie Hence it is that wee find her busie not onely in the Potts of the Balconies but in Wildernesses and ruinous places where no eyes observe her but the Starrs and Planets In a word wheresoever the fire of nature finds the Virgin Mercurie there hath he found his Love and there will they both fall to their Husbandrie a pleasure not subject to Surfets for it still Presents new Varieties It is reported of Marc Antonie a famous but unfortunate Romane how he sent his Agent over the world to Copie all the handsome faces that amongst so many excellent features hee might select for himself the most pleasing peece Truly Nature is much of this straine for shee hath infinite beauteous patternes in her self and all these shee would gladly see beyond her self which shee cannot doe without the matter for that is her Glasse This makes her generate perpetually and imprint her conceptions in the matter communicating life to it and figuring it according to her Imagination By this Practice shee placeth her Fansie or Idea beyond her self or as the Peripatetics say extra Intellectum beyond the divine Mind namely in the Matter but the Idea's being innumerable and withall different the pleasures of the Agent are maintain'd by their Varietie or to speak more properly by his own fruitfulnesse for amongst all the Beauties the world affords there are not two that are altogether the same Much might bee spoken in this place concerning Beautio what it is from whence it came and how it may be defaced not onely in the outward figure but in the inward Idea and lost for ever in both worlds But these pretty shuttles I am no way acquainted with I have no Mistris but Nature wherefore I shall leave the fine Ladies to fine Lads and speak of my simple AElia Laelia It was scarce Day when all alone I saw Hyanthe and her Throne In fresh green Damascs she was drest And o're a Saphir Globe did rest This slipperie Sphaere when I did see Fortune I thought it had been Thee But when I saw shee did present A Majestie more Permanent I thought my Cares not lost if I Should finish my Discoverie Sleepie shee look'd to my first sight As if shee had Watch'd all the Night And underneath her hand was spread The White Supporter of her head But at my Second studied View I could perceive a silent Dew Steale down her Cheeks lest it should Stayne Those Cheeks where onely Smiles should reigne The Tears stream'd down for haste and all In Chaines of liquid Pearle did fall Faire Sorrows and more