at her and Fortune too because they deprive Philosophy of a Subject that perhaps might surpass you But where were we when he came You talked to me Sir replied I of a Saint that I never saw in the Roman Calender I think you called him Danhuzerus Ha! I remember answered he I bid you put your self in the place of one of your Doctors and suppose that the blessed Danhuzerus came to open his Conscience to you and told you Sir the fame of your knowledge hath brought me hither from beyond the Alpes I have a little scruple that pinches me In a Mountain of Italy there is a Nymph keeps her Court a thousand Nymphs as lovely almost as her self wait upon her Many handsome learned and civil Gentlemen come thither from all parts of the habitable World they love those Nymphs and are beloved of them there they lead the sweetest life imaginable they beget most lovely Children on those whom they love they adore the Living God they wrong no Body and they hope for immortality As I was one day walking upon that Mountain I pleased the Nymph Queen she made her self visible and shew'd me her charming Court. The Sages perceiving that she loved me respected me almost as their Prince they exhorted me to yield to the Sighs and Beauty of the Nymph she her self told me her Sufferings and omitted nothing that might affect my Heart and at length told me that she must die if I would not love her and that if I loved her she would be indebted to me for her Immortality The Reasonings of those Learned Men convinced my mind and the charms of the Nymph won my heart I love her and have very hopeful Children by her but in the midst of my Felicity I am sometimes troubled by calling to mind that the Church of Rome perhaps approves not too well of this I came to you Sir to consult what that Nymph is those Sages and Children and in what state my Conscience is There Master Doctor what Answer would you make to Lord Danhuzerus I would tell him answered I with all the respect that I owe you Seigneur Danhuzerus you are a little phanatical or else your Vision is an Inchantment your Children and Mistriss are Hobgoblins your Sages are Fools and your Conscience is seared With that answer my Son you may deserve a Doctors Hood but you 'll never merit to be reâ—â—â—â—â—d amongst us replied the Count fetching a deep sigh there is the barbarous Disposition of all the Doctors now a days A poor Sylph dares not shew himself but he is immediately taken for a Goblin a Nymph must not endeavour Immortality unless she pass for an impure Apparition and a Salamander dares not appear for fear of being taken for a Devil and the pure Flamet whereof he is composed for the Fire of Hell that never leaves him It is to much purpose for them that they may dispel those injurious suspitions to make the sign of the Cross when they appear bow the Knee at the Divine Names yea and pronounce them with reverence These are vain cautions they cannot obtain that Men would not repute them the Enemies of God whom they more religiously adore than they that flee from them In earnest Sir said I do you believe the Sylphs to be very devote Most devote answered he and most zealous for a Deity The excellent Discourses they make us upon the Divine Essence and their admirable Prayers edifie us exceedingly Have they Prayers also said I I would willingly have one of them It is easie to satisfie you replied he and to the end I may not relate one that may be suspected or that you may imagine fraâ—'d by my self listen to that which the Salamander who gave responses in the Temple of Delphos taught the Pagans and is related by Porphyrius it contains sublime Theology and by it you 'll see that it was no fault of those wise Creatures if the World adored not the true God The Prayer of the Salamaders IMmortal Eternal Ineffable and Holy Father of all Things who incessantly art carried on the rolling chariot of ever-turning Worlds Ruler of the Etherian Fields where the Throne of thy Power is raised from the height whereof thy dreadful Eyes discover all and thy Holy and Blessed Ears hear every thing Hear thy Children whom thou hast loved from the beginning of Ages for thy Bright thy Great and Eternal Majesty shines over the World and the Starry Heavens O sparkling Fire thou art elevated above them there thou inlightens and entertains thy self by thy own Brightness and from thy being flow out continual streams of Light which nourish thine infinite Spirit That infinite Spirit produces all things and makes that inexhaustible Treasure of Matter which cannot be wanting to the Generation that always inviron it by reason of the innumerable Forms wherewith it is impregnated and with which thou filled'st it in the beginning From that Spirit spring also those most Holy Kings who stand about thy Throne and make up thy Court O universal and onely Father O Father of the blessed Mortals and Immortals thou hast in particular created Powers who are wonderfully like to thy Eternal Thought and thine Adorable Essence Thou hast placed them above the Angels the Messengers of thy Will in the World In fine thou hast created us a third kind of Soveraigns in the Elements Our continual Exercise is to praise thee and to adore thy Will and Pleasure We are inflamed with a desire of possessing thee O Father O Mother the tenderest of Mothers O wonderful Example of the Feelings and Tenderness of Mothers O Son the Flower of all Sons O Form of all Forms Soul Spirit Harmony and Number of all Things What say ye now to that Prayer of the Salamanders Is it not very Learned very Sublime and very Devote And besides very Obscure too answered I I heard a Preacher paraphrase upon it who from thence proved that the Devil amongst his other Vices is a notorious great Hypocrite Ho! cried the Count what remedy have ye then poor Elementary People ye speak astonishingly of the nature of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost of assistent intelligences of the Angels and Heavens Ye make admirable Prayers and teach them to Men and when all is done ye are but hypocritical Goblins Sir said I interrupting him I like not at all the Apostrophies you use to those People Well well my Son replied he be not afraid that I call them but let not your weakness so far work upon you at least as for the future to wonder that you see not so many instances as you would of their Alliance with Men. Alas Where is that Woman whose imagination your Doctors have not spoiled who reflects not on that commerce with Horrour and who would not quake at the aspect of a Sylph Where is the Man that flies not from the sight of them if he incline a little to be good Do we but very seldom find an Honest Man that
an immense depth of Flame yet the Heart of Man should not fear to touch that adorable Fire nor to be touched by it it shall not be consumed by that so gentle Fire the mild and peaceable heat whereof causes the Conjunction Harmony and Duration of the World Nothing subsists but by this Fire which is God himself He is not begotten he has no Mother he knows all things and can be taught nothing he is immutable in his purposes and his Name is ineffable this is God for as for us who are his Messengers we are but a little particle of God Well now What say you to this I say of both answered I that God can force the Father of Lies to give testimony to the Truth Come here is a third replied the Count that will remove your Scruple ALas Tripodes Weep and make the Funeral Oration of your Apollo he is mortal he is going to die He extinguisheth because the Light of the Coelestial Flame makes him extinct You well perceive my Child that whoever he be that speaks in these Oracles and who so well explains to Pagans the Essence Unity Immmensity and Eternity of God he confesses that he is Mortal and that he is but a spark of God It is not then the Devil that speaks because he is Immortal and God would not force him to say that he is not so It is agreed that Satan is not divided against himiself Is that the way for him to be adored to say That there is but one God He says that he is Mortal how long is it since the Devil was so humble as to strip himself even of his Natural Qualities You see then my Son that if the Principle of him who by Excellence is called the God of Knowledge hold Good the Devil can never have spoken in the Oracles But if it be not the Devil said I either in a frollick tellâ—ng a Lie when he calls himself Mortal or speaking the Truth by force when he speaks of God to what then will your Cabal ascribe all the Oracles which ye maintain to have been really delivered Is it to an exhalation of the Earth as Aristotle Cicero and Plutarch affirm Not so my Child said the Count t anks to the Sacred Cabal I 'me not so far out of my Wits yet How replied I hold you that then to be a Fantastical Opinion It is maintained though by men of good sense They are not so in this point my Son continued he and it is impossible that all that hath been done in Oracles can be attributed to Exhalation For Example That Man in Tacitus who in a Dream appeared to the Priests of a Temple of Hercules in Armenia and commanded them to provide Dogs and Horses to go a Hunting Thus far it might have been Exhalation but when at Night those Dogs and Horses returned almost spent and the Quivers empty of Arrows and that next day there were as many Beasts found dead in the Forrest as there were Arrows in the Quivers this you see could not be Exhalation And far less it was the Devil for it would be a very unreasonable and uncabalistick Notion of the Misery of the Enemy of God to think that he is permitted to take his pleasure in Hunting the Hind or Hare To what does the sacred Cabal then said I attribute the matter Hold a little answered he before I discover to you that Mystery I must dispossess you of a prejudice that you may entertain as to that pretended Exhalation for it appears to me that you emphatically cited Aristotle Plutarch and Cicero You may likewise cite Jamblichus whâ—fâ—r all he was a Man of so great parts was sometime in that Error which he quickly forsook when he had examined the Matter more narrowly in the Book of Mysteries Peter of Apoua Pomponatius Levinius Sirenius and Lucilio Vanino are over-joyed in finding that evasion amongst some of the Ancients All these pretended Wits who speaking of Divine Matters say rather what they desire than what they know will allow nothing supernatural in Oracles lest they should be forced to acknowledge somewhat above man They are afraid we should lead them up as by a Jacob's Ladder to Gâ—d whom they fear to know by the stâ—ps and degrees of spiritual creatures but had rather make themselves one to descend by into the Abyss of Nothing instead of lifting themselves up to heaven they dig down into the earth and instead of searching in the beings that are superiour to man the cause of thâ—se transports that raise him above himself and render him a kind of Dâ—ity they weakly ascribe to feeble Exhalations that vertue of penetrating into the future of discovering hidden things and of soaring up to the highest secrets of the Divine Essence Such is the misery of Man when he is possessed with a spirit of contradiction and an humour of thinking otherwise than other men do He is so far from attaining his ends that he intangles and fetters himself These Libertines will not subject Man to substances less material than himself and yet subject him to an Exhalation and never considering that there is no Analogy betwixt that Chimerical steam and the soul of Man betwixt that vapor and things future betwixt that frsvolous cause and those miraeulous Effects It is enough for them to be singular to make them think themselves reasonable and to deny spirits that they may set up for men of spirit and wit You are much offended at singularity then Sir said I interrupting him Ah! my Son answered he it is the Plague of a good Judgment and the stumbling-block of the greatest Wits Aristotle for all he was so great a Logician could not avoid the snare into which a conceit of singularity leads those who are so violently acted by it as he was He could not I say avoid tripping and puzzling himself in his reasonings In his Book of the Generation of Animals and in his Ethicks he says That the spirit and mind of Man comes to him from without and that it is not transmitted from Father to Son and from the spirituality of the operations of our Soul he concludes it to be of another Nature than the Material Body which it inspires the grossnoss whereof does but offuscate Speculations far from producing them Blind Aristotle seeing according to your opinion our material part cannot be the source of our spiritual thoughts how do you fancy that a weak Exhalation can be the Fountain of sublime Speculations and of the high Flight of the Pythians who render Oracles You well perceive my Child how that great Wit trips and that his singularity makes him lose himself You reason very exactly Sir said I ravished to find that he spoke in effect to very good purpose and hoping that his folly might not prove incurable God grant that ..... Plutarch an Author otherwise so solid continued hc interrupting me is to be pitied in his Dialogue Why the Oracles have ceased He makes to himself convincing
Objections which he does not solve Why does not he then answer what is objected to him that if it be an Exhalation which occasions that transport then all that approach the Prophetick â—tool should be seised with Enthusiasme and not a single Maid who must be also a Virgin But how can that Vapour articulate a Voice in the Belly Moreover that Exhalation is a natural and necessary Agent and ought always to produce regularly the same Effect Why is that Maid then never inspired but when she is consulted And what is more urging why has the Earth left off to send out such Divine Vapours Is it less Earth than it was Does it receive other Influences Are there other â—eas and other Rivers Who has then stopped the Pores or changed the Nature thereof I wonder that Pomponatius Lucilius and the rest of the Libertines should have followed the Notion of Plutarch and yet abandoned the way he takes to explain himself He spoke more judiciously than Cicero and Aristotle for he was a man indeed of good judgement and not knowing what to make of all those Oracles after a long and tedious uncertainty he at length fixed upon this That that Exhalation which he believed came out of the Earth was a most Divine Spirit So that he ascribed to the Deity those extraordinary agitations and Prophetick Raptures of the Priests of Apollo That Divining Vapour said he is a Breath and a most holy and divine Spirit Pomponatius Lucilius and the Modern Atheists like not those wayes of speaking which suppose a Deity These Exhalations say they were of the nature of those Vapours which infest Melancholick People who speak Languages which they understand not But Fernelius confutes these impious men very well by proving that Melancholy which is a peccant Humour cannot occasion that variety of Tongues which is one of the wonderfullest Effects of Consideration and an Artificial Expression of our Thoughts He hath nevertheless but imperfectly decided the Matter when he subscribes to Psellus and to all those who have not been sufficiently endowed with our holy Philosophy for not knowing what cause to give for such surprizing Effects like Women and Monks he hath attributed them to the Devil To whom are they then to be attributed said I. I have long waited for that Cabalistick Secret Plutarch himself hath very well observed it said he and he would have done well to have held to thar That irregular way of Speaking by an unseemly Organ being base and unworthy of the Majesty of the Gods says the Pagan and what the Oracles said surpassing likewise the power of the Soul of Man they have done great Service to Philosophy who have placed a kind of Mortal Creatures betwixt the Gods and Man to whom may be ascribed all that surpasses the weakness of Man and comes not near the greatness of the Deities That is the Opinion of all the Ancient Philosophy The Platonists and Pythagoreans learnt it from the Aegyptians and those from Joseph and the Hebrews who dwelt in AEgypt before they passed the Red Sea The Hebrews called those Substances which are between Angels and Men Sadaim and the Greeks transposing the Syllables and adding but one Letter call them Daimonas These Demons amongst the Ancient Philosophers are an Aereal People bearing rule over the Elements mortal generative but unknown in this Age by those who search little for Truth in its ancient Habitations that is to say in the Cabal and Theology of the Hebrews who had the particular Art of Entertaining that Aereal Nation and conversing with the Inhabitants of the Air. You are at your Sylphs again I fancy Sir said I interrupting him Yes my Son continued he the Jewish Teraphim was onely the Ceremony that was to be observed for that Commerce and that Jew Micah who in the Book of Judges complains that they had carried away his Gods laments only the loss of the little Statue wherein the Sylphs conversed with him The Gods that Rachel stole from her Father were also a Teraphim Micah and Laban are not accused of Idolatry and Jacob would have been loath to have lived Fourteen years with an Idolater or to have married his Daughter It vvas but a Commerce of Sylphs and vve know by Tradition that the Synagogue held that Commerce to be lawful and that David's Wife's Idol was only a Teraphim by means whereof she entertained a Correspondence with the Elementary People for you may very well conceive that the Prophet according to Gods own heart would never have suffered Idolatry in his House Whilest for punishment of the first sin God slighted the World these Elementary Nations took delight to explain to Men in Oracles what they knew of God to teach them to live morally to give them most wise and sound Counsels such as are to be seen in great numbers in Plutarch and all the Historians But so soon as God took pity on the world and would himself become its Teacher these little Masters with-drew and from thence came the silence of the Oracles The result of all your Discourse Sir said I is that there have been certainly Oracles and that they were rendered by Sylphs who render them still daily in Glasses or Mirors Sylphs or Salamanders Gnomes or Undians replied the Count. If it be so Sir answered I all your Elementary People are an ill-bred Pack And why said he Why said I can there be greater cheating and jugling in the World than those Responses of double meaning which they alwayes gave Alwayes replied he Ha! not always The Sylphide who appeared to that Roman in Asia and foretold him That he should one day return thither with the Dignity of Pro-consul Did she speak very obscurely And does not Tacitus say That the thing happened as she had fore-told That Inscription and those famous Statues in the Spanish History which informed the Unfortunate King Roderigo That his curiosity and incontinence should one day be punished by meâ— cloathed and armed as they were and that those black men should invade Spain and reign long in it Could any thing be clearer than that and did not the effect justifie the truth that very same year Did not the Moors come and dethrone that Effeminate King You know the Story and you may easily judge that the Devil who since the Reign of the Messias disposes not of Empires could not be Author of that Oracle And that it must certainly have been some great Cabalist who learned it from one of the most knowing Salamanders For seeing the Salamanders are great Lovers of Chastity they willingly acquaint us with the evils that are to befal the World for the want of that Vertue But Sir said I do you think it a very chaeste thing and becoming Cabalistick Modesty to make use of that Heteroclitous Organ by which they preached their Morality Ah! for this once said the Count laughing I perceive you have the Imagination distempered and you see not the Physical reason why the inflamed Salamander