circumscribed in an Organical body The Proof and Explaination NO true Philosopher will deny this The Platonists place not the soul in the body but the body in the soul And the Peripateticks themselves do with Aristotle confesse That the soul doth execute some action without the body Nay it seems very absurd to shut up so noble an Essence in so narrow and strait a Prison Neither were there wanting some Divines who attributed acerta in ubiquity to the soul affirming it to be there where it worketh for what can be devised more unlikely than to conclude that most noble Essence as bounded and comprehended in this so exceeding small a prison The common dictate of Reason proveth That the thing comprehended so far forth as it is comprehended is more base and ignoble than the thing comprehending And it is manifest to him who considereth the nature of things That the thing comprehending so far forth as it comprehendeth is more excellent in operation and power than the thing comprehended That the Imagination worketh without it and beyond its own body I take it to be manifest and if any man doubt of it he will be convinced by experience for it worketh in the Embrio Neither can fascinations be otherwise performed But is not the Imagination the hand of the soul by which it worketh without the help of the body and yet these operations conduce not to our purpose Therefore we must shew more clearly what we mean by this Conclusion We do then under it and by it mean nothing else but that the soul must necessarily be wheresoever the vital spirit is found for the vital spirit is the bond by which the soul is tyed to the body or rather it is the undivided companion of the soul brought by the soul from heaven by which the soul joyned it self with the body by means and mediation whereof it gives the form of the body and if by the frown of the destinies it be forsaken by the particular soul it returns to its common country but is never extended further than the soul it self without which the spirit cannot subsist Then if a mans body work something without it self surely it worketh as informed by the soul and shall it not then work vitally and produce vital actions But how I pray you shall it produce them without doubt in and by the vertue and power of the form that is the soul But except I be deceived there can nothing work by the power of another and not be partaker of it Therefore the active beams that produce such effects without the body must needs be partaker of the soul by which they work And I think no man can be so senslesse to deny actions extrinsecal or without the body to Man the most noble compound and grant them to Plants and Stones but that operations depend on forms it alwayes seemed true to the most Learned The seed doth as some would have it beget the Embrio in the mother which it could not do were it not upholden and furnished with the presence of the fathers soul But I hear some whisper that this opinion can be no way consonant to truth because that then if the father should dye assoon as he hath begotten the child his soul being free from the bonds of the body goes to its appointed place And how then can it work in the Embrio But to him that considereth the matter well this will appear of no great difficulty whether we say That the soul is not utterly and absolutely free as long as any vital spirit remaineth anywhere safe and untoucht for it there sticks and abides as long and until its subject be quite turned into an other thing but because it wants organs as in an appoplexy it cannot perform any sencelike actions Or whether we will say rather The soul is necessarily present at these operations by a certain presence and yet not hindered but that in another place it may perform other works for seeing that the soul doth by wonderful and strange means produce many things in the body and is after divers manners in divers places Why shall it not when it is free from the body do the same things or the like so it wants not its Instruments of its proper natural heat which only is fit to produce such an effect But of what hath been said the cause is plain why about the Graves of them that die a violent death there are apparitions seen for the vital heat and natural moisture being not quite dissolved the soul sticks and gives sometimes in these exhallations impregnated with the spirit the shape and form of a man And the same may be the reason why sometimes in Church-yards such things appear and from the same head it is that the slain Corps bleedeth at the presence or touch of the Murderer for the soul being yet present doth by the dispensation of Providence work such things But for the better confirmation of this Conclusion there is enough said in this place others from these grounds will invent and finde out things which will be far more sublime and high CONCLUSION II. The Soul worketh without or beyond its proper body commonly so called The Proof and Explanation of this THis Second Conclusion hath nothing which is not manifest in the former and of it self is clear and confessed by all men For if the soul be without the body it can and shall without doubt work there for the soul in its essence includes Act being as one saith and very well an Essentiall Act proceeding temporally It works therefore according to the Organs informed or according to the manner of information seeing it communicates a form to the subject for peradventure it were more agreeable to simple and pure truth to call the soul not the form but rather the giver of the form yet so giving forms that both in their beings and operations they shal depend upon it and whatsoever is is dispensed and given by it Plato seems to have placed in men a three-fold distinct form yet depending on the common soul It is true that to these Inferiour forms the name of form is sometimes given but how truly and properly let them look to it that accustomed to speculations have learned to separate Vitall Actions from the soul which proceed onely from it But we omitting all these difficulties will be content to use the common means which will also peradventure serve our turns Some men will say If the soul be and work without the body or besides it by informing the naturall heat that proceedeth without it and is inherent in his beams they must needs be men consisting of a soul and of a body When I first began this Work I had thought to have passed over such Objections as ridiculous but this being one that may seem of some moment to them that are lesse perspicacious I am content to answer And first I say it is as absurd for ought I said to call the beams men as
shew in the Chapter following which produceth a sufficient disposition to receive information from the souls as we said in the Chapter fore-going But that those beams are of parts is clearer than the Sun at noon day for that which proceedeth from diverse and heterogeneous parts conveying also with it self something from all even the smallest parts cannot choose but be of diverse parts for from the bones flesh nerves there do flow continually certain particles of which those beams consist these carry with them the disposition of the body and according to that disposition taken from the body work more powerfully than the body it self Hereupon a wise man will take special heed of living and conversing with sick people the rather if he feel himself disposed to such a disease for a body so disposed doth more greedily draw to it self those beams and is sooner changed And note that bodies in whom there is a likenesse of nature and complexion do sooner sympathize with one another as brothers sisters and do sooner take infectious diseases one of another because of the radical likenesse the infected beams are more drawn and the body more speedily changed Another necessary caution doth by this occasion come into my minde That great care must be taken to avoid these places where the excrements of diseased persons are laid both for the reasons aforesaid and for a more proper and particular cause it shall be exprest in what followeth CONCLUSION IV. The beams sent out of the bodies of wights have and injoy a vitall spirit by which the operations of the soul are dispensed The Proof and Explanation c. EVery compound consisting of matter and form hath its own proper natural heat which is derived and propagated not from the Elements but from Heaven and particularly from the Sun the heat of Heaven seeing that by the departure of it all things grow sad and torpid and by the return of it are cheared and refreshed for it is the fountain and original of life making all things fruitfull by its heat multiplying and preserving them in their own being Whence it followes that nothing can exist without some manner of heat it being the bond whereby the form is tyed to the matter and which lying hid in them in a viscous Mercury a moisture brought with it from Heaven giveth increase of seed to every body It is also the instrument which the form useth to produce actions and it is the immediate cause of the aforesaid beams which beams it never forsaketh but accompanieth them in their journey Blessed and thrice blessed is he which can Multiply it in a fit subject under the favour of the Sun and Heaven This said heat if it decrease the body tends to destruction the beams being fewer and weaker Furthermore though the form be not united to the matter but by a certain mean of this heat which is so required as proper to all things yet it varieth in every spirit of things yet it hath in every spirit some latitude so that you shall finde in the individuals that which is altogether the same because the heat sometimes is more and sometimes lesse which may be the cause of variety of operations not onely in these of the same species but even in the same individual it is after changed till at last by corruption it end in that which is altogether another latitude for the matter is not tenacious enough nor holds the heat fast enough but lets it being volatile wander abroad which according to the impressions of Heaven applyeth it self variously to the matter whence depends the whole oeconomie and every change in sublunary things But it 's now time to retire our selves and descend to the body of man the proper subject of this work And first it shall not be amisse to explicate our selves what we mean by the vital spirit in this Conclusion whether after the manner of other Physicians that which the Schools call by this name or some other thing of far another nature surely although we think that received opinion of the spirits animall vitall and naturall as they call them not altogether consonant to truth yet being besides our purpose we mean not to meddle with it here and therefore of other manner of spirits But what new spirit is this brought in into Physick or by what Authority came it in Truly I am so supercilious as to affirm this done by my Authority Let it not be brought in at all I onely require that I may be spared the use of that name to expresse the natural heat and radicall moisture both together and the reason is because they are never actually separated And to call them spirits because of all Corporall things they come nearest to the nature of spirits both in their originall and power It is called vitall because by mediation of it life flowes and is propagated into the body and therefore wheresoever you finde in this Treatise the name of spirit understand it as is said Now then that this spirit flourisheth in the foresaid beams I think it appeareth from hence This spirit also floweth from the body and this no wise man will deny for if it flow not from the body the body would last for ever Consequently the things that can most fix these spirits have great power to prolong the life of man for it is volatile and every moment some portion of it goeth out with the parts of the body resolved into beams for why it should leave the beams going out and insinuate it self into bodies indisposed there can be no reason given nay it seems utterly impossible and that the beams have a disposition to hold it for with them it goeth out in the plague because the beams as is observed retain the disposition of the body from whence they go yea if the spirit were not there the beams could not do as they do nor work in the power of the soul for of it this spirit is the Instrument Either therefore the bodies of men shall work at no distance at all or if at distance whatsoever this spirit must needs reach and proceed to it and by virtue of a more potent soul in the very beginning and principall of life the body of man as of all other wights is ordinated to natural actions as other natural bodies are by the seminary vertues which are in their forms nay more powerfull than these are this spirit that accompanieth the beams dispenseth their Actions which are far propagated and when they grow faint they are supplied by and from the bodies CONCLUSION V. That the Excrements of the bodies of living Creatures retain a portion of vitall spirits and therefore we must not deny them life and the life is of the same species that the life of the Wight is of and propagated from the same The Proof and Explanation of it c. THat the Excrements of the bodies of Wights retain some portion of the vitall spirit it appears for having lurked long in
Page ibid. The Vse and Application Page ibid. The Weapon-salve according to the description of of the Noble Chymist Oswald Crollius Page 102 The Vertue of this Oyntment Page 103 The Use in diverse Observations ibid. The Magnetick Cure of the Yellow Jaundise By Application Page 105 The Magnetick Transplantation of the Gout ibid The Magnetick Cure of Ulcers ibid The Magnetisme of Asarabacca Page 106 Magnetismes in Nature The first Of the Vine ibid The second Magnetick Impressions of the breeding Mother upon the Embrio ibid The third A Magical Magnetisme out of the famous Van Helmont Page 107 The fourth Of the Magical Magnetisme of the Tarantula ibid The fifth The Magnetisme of the Magnes it self Page 109 THE FIRST BOOK AN HUNDRED APHORISMES CONTAINING The whole Body of NATURAL MAGICK being the Key to open that which followeth in SYMPATHICK MEDCINE Aphorisme 1. THe whole World is animated with the first supream and intellectual Soul possessing in it self the seminary reasons of all things which proceeding from the brightness of the Idea's of the first Intellect is as it were the Instrument by which this great Body is governed and is the link of the Golden Chain of Providence Aph. 2. While the operations of the Soul are terminated or bounded the Body is generated or produced out of the bounds of the Soul and is diversly formed according to the Imagination thereof hence it hath the dominating power over the Body which it could not have unlesse the Body did fully and wholly depend upon it Aph. 3. In the production while the Soul fashioneth to it self a Body there is some third thing the mean between them both by which the Soul is more inwardly joyned to the Body and by which the operation of natural things are dispensed and this is called the Vital spirit Aph. 4. The operations of natural things are dispensed from this Spirit by proper Organs according to the disposition of the Organs Aph. 5. The disposition of the Organ depends first and principally upon the Intellect which disposeth all things Secondly upon the soul of the World that formed it self a body according to the semenary reason of things Thirdly upon the spirit of the Universe that continueth things in such a disposition Aph. 6. No bodily thing hath any energie or operation in it self saving so far forth as it is sharer of the same spirit or informed by it For that which is meerly corporal is meerly passive Aph. 7. He that will work great things must take away as much as is possible corporeity from things or else he must adde spirit to the body or else awaken the sleepy spirit Unlesse he do some of these things or know how to joyn his imagination to the imagination of the soul of the World he will never do any great thing Aph. 8. It is impossible to take all this spirit from any thing whatsoever for by this bond a thing is holden back from falling to the first matter or nothing Aph. 9. This spirit is somewhere or rather everywhere found as it were free from the bodie and he that knoweth to joyn it with a body agreable possesseth a treasure unestimable Aph. 10. This spirit is reparated as much as may be either by means of fermentation or drawn by his brother which is at liberty Aph. 11. The Organs by which the spirit worketh are the qualities of things which meerly and purely considered are able to do no more than the Eye can see without life as being nothing else but modifications of the matter or body Aph. 12. All things operating do it to this only purpose to make things upon which they work like themselves Aph. 13. The subject of the vital spirit is the bodie in it is received and by it worketh neither is it ever so pure but that it is joyned with its Mercurial humour Aph. 14. The humour doth not specifie the spirit because it is the common matter of things apt to be made any thing neither is it seen with the eyes because it is pure unlesse it be first terminated in a more solid bodie Aph. 15. Neither souls nor pure spirits nor intelligences can work upon bodies but by means of the spirit for two extreams cannot be joyned together without a mean therefore Daemons appear not but after sacrifices used Aph. 16. If the spirits or Intelligences wonted go to the vital spirits specified which is either discipated by the contrary or changed into another thing they cease to work there any longer and as they are allured by the vital spirits of living creatures so they are put to flight or rather do cease to work upon bodies when sharp and venemous things are used Aph. 17. The Stars do tye the vital spirits to the bodie disposed by light and heat and by the same means do they infuse is into the bodie Aph. 18. In generation the spirit is mixt with the body and directs the intention of nature to its end Aph. 19. The seeds of things are known to contain more plenty of these spirits than any thing else Aph. 20. The seeds do not contain such plenty as is required to the perfect production of a thing but the internal spirit alluring the external coming down from Heaven unites it to its self and being fortified therewith at length it begets its like Aph. 21. Before the seed do germinate or bud it is fermented and by fermentation disposed to alteration Aph. 22. If the fermentation could be hindred in the advancement of attraction and assimulation then a thing might be brought at length from its seeds to the species of it in a moment Aph. 23. That which is more universal doth more further attraction and more dispose the seed to attraction as Salt-peter in vegitables Aph. 24. Every familie of things hath somewhat universal annext to it whereby the seed is disposed to attraction and made fruitful Aph. 25. He that knows how to joyn the universal artificially to the seed of the animal family may produce even living wights beside the termination matrix or womb at least formally and the like reason is also for the other thing Aph. 26. He that can joyn light with darkness may multiply things in their own kindes and change the nature of them Aph. 27. The universal vital spirit coming down from Heaven pure clear and uncontaminate is the father of the particular vital spirit which is in every thing for it procreates and multiplies in it the body from whence bodies borrow the power of multiplying themselves Aph. 28. As the first vital spirit lyeth hid in the mercurial humour that is common and free So the vital spirit of particular things lyes in that mercurial humour imbrued with the vertue of that bodie whose it is which they call radical moisture Aph. 29. He that can joyn a spirit impregnat with the virtue of one bodie with another that is now disposed to change may produce many miracles and monsters Aph. 30. The first varietie of the disposition
of bodies proceed from the various concoction of waters Aph. 31. The second from the various mixture of the three principles Salt Sulphure and Mercurie Aph. 32. These dispositions flow from the position of the Stars especially of the Sun Aph. 33. Every thing hath so much vitality as is required to produce the natural Actions of that species Aph. 34. Nothing beginneth to be made that doth not receive some vitallity from Heaven by which it can work somewhere Aph. 35. He that knoweth how to infuse the propitious Heavens or Sun into things or into the mixture of things may perform wonders and hereupon depends all magick operations Aph. 36. By how much the dispositions or the subjects are more formal so much more of this life they receive and so much more powerfully they do work Aph. 37. As in the eye the operations are more noble than in the foot although they both proceed from the same soul because of the purity of this Organ apt to receive a greater proportion of life so the Constellate carracters because of their formality receive a great proportion of spirit from Heaven and produce nobler actions Aph. 38. The spirit floweth continually from Heaven and back again to Heaven and in the flowing is found pure and unmixt and therefore may by a skilfull workman by wonderful means be joyned to any thing and increase the virtues of it according to the disposition of the subject Aph. 39. The heart of Heaven is the Sun and by light distributeth all things aswell to the Stars as to the Earth Aph. 40. Opacum is nothing else but a Body either wanting light or having the light asleep in it Aph. 41. He that can by light draw light out of things or multiply light with light he knoweth how to adde the universal spirit of life to the particular spirit of life and by this addition do wonders Aph. 42. So much light as is added so much life and so much of the one as is lost so much is lost of the other Aph. 43. This spirit after the first period of maturation strongly beginneth by little and little to vanish Aph. 44. Maturation is nothing else but the operation of the radicated moisture to the perfection of the Individuum so far forth as it may be perfected proceeding according to the semenary reasons propounded or purposed by Nature or the Soul Or it is an actuation of the internal spirit so far as it may be actuated Or it is the greatest Illumination of the matter that can possibly be done by such light Aph. 45. The spirit is discipated when it stirreth to act upon a matter too rebellious or when the natural mixture or Crasis of a thing is altered by the Stars somtimes too much excited it breaketh forth or being called forth by its brother spirit it goeth away to it Aph. 46. The matter is rebellious when by reason of a contrary Crasis or temperature it cannot be overcome and altered by the spirit Or when it is in the last period beyond which it cannot go nor the spirit convoy it any further for only so much spirit is given as serveth every thing to the due perfection of it Aph. 47. The temperature of a thing is altered by the Stars when the Horiscope of the Nativity cometh to the degree of apposition of the Planets that be contrary to the beginning of the life Aph. 48. The spirit is too much excited by fermentation or immoderate agitation for moderate agitation is necessary to vital operation Aph. 49. The spirit is called out by its brother spirit when it is too much exposed to it Aph. 50. In certain things it cannot be called out by its brother spirit because of its strait-society with the body but it allureth his brother to him and is strongly fortified thereby Aph. 51. Fermentation is the action of heat upon moisture by which the moisture is heated and made subject to the spirit circulating it self in the body which cannot remain in the same estate by means of the fluxibility of the body Aph. 52. He that by means and use of the universal spirit can excite the particular of any to a natural fermentation and then appease and settle Natures tumults by repeating the operation may miraculously increase things in vertue and power the highest secrets of Philosophy Aph. 53. Every man knows that by means of fermentation the spirit is as pure as it possibly may be drawn but almost all of them do want the fruit of multiplication because they know not how to joyn one brother with another Aph. 54. Every thing fermented worketh more strongly because in things fermented the spirits are more free Aph. 55. Things do abide in the same state of nature so long as they possesse so much spirit as is sufficient to perform the due execution thereof Aph. 56. Hence is manifest the cause of natural death and destruction of things Every thing tends to maturation as to the perfection thereof and when it is ripe the spirit begins to shew its forces and so by acting it is discipated and vanisheth which at length is the cause of destruction Aph. 57. He that could lay hold on the vanishing spirit and apply it to the body from whence it slipt or to another of the same species may thereby do wonders Aph. 58. From this fountain all natural Philosophy doth flow For easily may the spirit imbrued with the qualities of another body procreate in bodies of the same kind a similtude which is the violent cause of love Aph. 59. These things are aptest to intercept this particular spirit which have the greater similitude of most natural conjunction with the parts or which being applied to a vegetous body are by such a contract made more flourishing These things are to be understood of the bodies of wights especially of man where Philosophers are of more power Aph. 60. This spirit where it findeth a little matter disposed according to that likeness it makes and seats the compound produced Aph. 61. Where the spirit of one body being married to the qualities of that body is communicated to another body there is generated a certain compassion because of the natural flux and reflux of the spirits to their proper bodies Which compassion or sympathy is not easily dissolved as that which is done by imagination Aph. 62. There can neither love nor compassion be generated without the commixture of spirits Aph. 63. This commixture is sometimes done by natural or material application sometime by imagination and not seldom by the disposition of the stars Aph. 64. By natural application it is done when the spirit of one body is implanted in another by means of those things which are apt to intercept the spirit and to communicate it to another and they are known by their signature and by the Ancients called Amatoria or such things as love one another Aph. 65. By imagination love is produced when the exalted imagination of one doth predominate over the imagination
it is to call the feet and hands men Secondly Every bare information doth not make man for it is required that a reasonable soul do inform an organical body and thus by means of the form be made fit for organical operations but if the soul inform any Compound onely vegetably or some inferior way unknown to us it cannot be forthwith called a Man for the soul informs according to the merit of the matter say the Platonists or more clearly it informs according to the Portion of the vitall spirit that is present for every proportion of this is not fit for every operation Hence it appears that though the soul do for sometime inform a Corps with a certain form for we see in dead Carcases the vegetative faculty doth for a time exercise its power which cannot be done without the soul yet it cannot be called a Man for being deprived of sense and reason it falls from that dignity But it is most certain that the soul being there present onely according to the vegetable power may work elsewhere for when it was tyed to the body according to all the wayes of vitality it did form many other operations why then when it is altogether free from those bonds or else tyed with them it should not work things proper to it self there can no reason be given nor can any man in judgment understand It may then according to the will of God either injoy pleasure or suffer pain although it be tyed to the dead Corps in that manner seeing that in the vegetative faculty it shall suffer nothing till it be again re-united to an organical body But in what things and how the soul doth suffer when it is loosed from the bonds of the body we leave to Divines as too far from our purpose CONCLUSION III. From every body flow Corporall beams by which the soul worketh by its presence and giveth them energie and power of working and these beams are not onely Corporall but of diverse parts The Proof c. THE first part of this Conclusion will easily be evicted for there is no man that can deny it that considereth the operations of naturall things and the hinderances of those operations For what reason is there why things more hard and solid than the nature of the thing requires work not so freely is it not because the Pores of the body being shut the Corporal beams cannot finde a due egresse Now unlesse they were Corporal no affection that is meerly corporal could hinder them and nothing but the change of the forms could destroy the faculties of things But when we see that the form remains the operations are hindered we wonder then if we be forced to consider and resolve of such beams Moreover unlesse those Active beams were corporal their operation would proceed to any distance and not be hindered by bodies If you say it is but an Accident by which things work at distance yet an Accident must needs be in a subject and must needs work by the virtue of that subject in which it is for I take it to be certain that no Accident barely considered in it self can have any Activity Therefore except such beams be granted nothing can work at distance by any means Therefore these Accidents are displayed in Corporal beams possessing all the manners of the body whence they proceed yet I would not have you take me for a maintainer of Accidents who could never hitherto see any thing in nature but substance unlesse any man could make the positions and manner of things something reall distinct from the bodies but here I speak out of supposition granting peradventure what some man might ask at my hands Besides what hath been said for our beams you may add that adventitious heat doth promote the operations of things but how could it do this but by stirring up more plentifull beams to bring them out We see how Amber being made hot with rubbing drawes the Chaff to it more stronglier and many other will not work unlesse they be hot by which making them hot the Corporal beams are more plentifully drawn out and so work more powerfully Moreover closenesse would not long keep the natural power of things unhurt but that it hinders the dissipations and spending of the beams besides unlesse beams were Corporal things they would penetrate though the most compact bodies the contrary whereof experience bears witnesse unto though it be true that some Compound bodies send out beams so thin and subtill that they can pierce the pores of all bodies as doth appear in the Loadstone But wherefore did Nature ordain Pores in bodies but that they may be doors by which these beams might pass in and out again the sences would never perceive sensible things but that there proceedeth beams from the bodies affecting the senses as appears in smelling for odour perisheth with age and yet for no other cause then that the beams perish which bring the odour to our nostrils so from all bodies there goes subtill thin beams bringing with them the shapes of things which is possible to demonstrate to the eyes in a dark place by mean of a translucide convex glasse but unlesse these beams were Corporal let any man tell me how they could affect the senses rather I have often wondred how being mingled with so great confusion in passing through the glasse they can severally explicate themselves But let us come to another stronger argument and more agreeing to our purposes to prove what we principally intend And namely that such beams do in a continuall motion go out of the bodies of wights which we shall easily do if we first consider the common natures of all wights for every wight that it may live any space must necessarily be nourished with food neither can it live without it because of the continuall going out of the beams the body from its natural disposition can endure no more vacuity and emptinesse than nature hath appointed for such a body That which in food is dry doth restore and refresh the solid parts and that which is moist the humors And why this but because every day nay every moment the beams and those most plenteously do go out from bodies and those corporal yea and from every part of the body for were not this so living wights would grow to monstrous and enormous greatnesse And this is the reason why wights fall to destruction and are not so long-lived as Stones nay not as some of the more compact sort of Trees for the vitall spirit and natural heat being in wights freer and more at liberty work more powerfully and produce more plenteous exhalations whence it comes to passe that they are propagated to the greatest distances the soul all the while knitting them together lest they should be altogether dissipated for they could not else hold the specifical virtue of the body neither could they work except the soul informed them for that hath in it the natural heat as we shall
the signature is most apparent and the moon in such a sign as governs the members signed especially the planet that is Lord of the plants being in his essential dignities and beholding them more favourably and let the moon and the Lord of the Plant be both free the Moon having the dominion of the plant or the sixth house and take heed the Moon be not joyned to any ill planets that are retrograde Those things that have their signature in the root must be gathered in Autumn but if they have the signature of the disease they must be gathered when the Planet Lord of the disease is weak in a cadent house and the Lord of the Plant fortified The Medicines taken from men gather assoon as they come out of the living body and keep them in a vessel well shut till time require But yet if thou canst fit the Moon and the Planet that is Lord of the part if thou intend not for a particular operation but for a general make the fortunate ascendant and in the sixth house if you cannot at the least let him be a friend by aspect to the house especially he must alwayes be taken that whether they be excrements or blood or ought else they be not corrupted before they be used yet do not so take me as that I should dislike fermentation which in this Art is most necessary and which some call corruption though falsly But if at any time thou wilt use Mummy in this Art take it possibly from a body living or next to life otherwise it will not do so much good as the warm blood and set it to dry in the shade however amongst the Mummy put warm blood and set it to dry in the shade but be sure it do not corrupt before the drying to avoid which it is best to cut it small into little square pieces like Dice for so it will be soonest dry and better serve the operations required If thou canst not have it from a living or from a warm body it either must be often anointed with warm blood or steeped in it and left there for a time and cautiously dryed for so it is fortified with the spirits drawn from the blood If at any time you intend to work by fermentation as soon as the blood excrements c. are out of the body put them out into a close vessel shut and mingle with them such things as are to be mingled if there be an addition of any thing required as in some excrements there are and thou set them to digest in a gentle heat not passing the heat of the body whence they came Note also That not alwayes the same vessels are to be used but sometimes glasses sometimes some things taken from living creatures as for example If thou wouldest digest ones excrement to stay a flux an earthen vessel if thou wouldest stay vomiting the stomach of a Swine is the best and so of the rest but when thou intendest implantation in all putrifactions to this purpose glassevessels are best though I would use an egg in some cases as in digesting blood by it self or mixed with sweat c. Now if you seek the time of application generally take it thus All application of these remedies be it implantation or simple application of things convenient ought to be done the Moon being in a sign conveniently fortunate if it may be in the tenth house and the Lord of the Plant of the medicine exalted above the Lord of the disease But of these we will give precepts in every likenesie And this by the way Though all things do not agree exactly yet do not thou forsake or procrastinate the cure fit those things that thou canst fit as if when the rest agreed thou wouldest begin a-new for if there be a due application of things although the stars do not so exactly accord the cure may be prolonged but the effect will not be altogether frustrate if thou learn well to observe the times to come this thou shalt do if the time be observed in the progresse of the cure then do as it were set upon the Disease a-fresh applying new Instruments of health A thing well to be noted for here is the wisedome of a Physician most required CHAP. VIII Of the means whereby this Art applyeth the Medicines to bring health into the diseased body THere are many means whereby this Art applyeth medicines to the vital spirits but for methods sake we will contract them into two in generall the one we will call transplantation the other naked application Transplantation is when by means of a Magnetick we put the Disease into a plant or another living creature the Patient being fully and wholly cured for when the Plant or the Wight hath drawn to its self the ill complexion troubling the vital spirit the spirit is thereby freed and made able and fit to exercise its due function but the Wight into which the Disease is transplanted languisheth and at length unlesse it be cured dieth Yet this caution is to be observed that we strive not in vain to transplant the Disease into another Wight which hath too strong a spirit for the vital spirits being sometime very strong resist vehemently and then all this preparation availeth nothing But into plants never strive for to transplant the Disease unlesse it be in some property contrary to the Disease especially take heed lest it have a quality contrary to the nature of man or lest by its too much violence after it hath attracted the Disease and evill quality and as it were digested it it attract more than it should do for by transplantation not onely the evill but the good is sometimes attracted and communicated to another Hence it is that they which transplant hair into a Willow to make it grow and leave it there longer than they should do do make the head weak and the sight dim for the willow draweth the spirit of the head too violently from hence it comes that by transplantation a man may get himself the strength of a Horse or a Bull if it be rightly done This transplantation is twofold viz. immediate and mediate Immediate is that which is done to any living Creatures by mummiall things for so the thing whereunto it is applyed appropriates unto it self and draws to its own nature the good or evill quality of the Mummey and either frees the spirit from such a quality if it be evill or appropriates to its self the spirit if it be hurt by no ill quality and fortifies it self by this spirit by means whereof it can bring in the qualities and temper of the body into the thing whereunto it is applyed and that things by means of these qualities unites the spirit unto it and by that and in the virtue of it can work many things And lest thou be deceived by the word we call Mummey It signifieth those things or parts of Wights which exhibit the spirit nakedly as thou mayst learn out of
the First Chapter Mediate transplantation is that which is done by mediate means as if any quality being transplanted into an Herb will be transplanted into the Animal to whom it is given and by this means wonders may be done take thou heed thou do not evill here Note that due putrifaction doth excellently prepare the aforesaid Mummy that any quality may be introduced into an Animal but it is found by experience that blood doth best admit of such putrifaction Now let us come to the other part of the Art which we called Application which we must know is nothing else than the application of those things to the Mummy which can either correct the evill quality or can draw the vitall spirit out of it by which last means also mediate application is done as in some Amatories it is very manifest In this application these things are further to be noted first That nothing endued with any venemous quality be applyed to the Mummy being hurt by that means for it easily communicates his hurt to the whole But if you follow the former Doctrine concerning signatures thou shalt not easily erre from the mark Moreover take heed that by evill diet in the time of application thou overthrow not the whole businesse which is also religiously to be observed in transplantation And of these things here is enough said at this time CHAP. IX Of transplantation and the diverse manners by which it is done IN the former Chapter we have said what we meant by transplantation now it followes how many wayes it may be done There be Six manner of transplantations viz. Insemination Implantation Imposition Irroration Inescation and Appromination We will speak in order of them all Insemination is when a Magnet impregnate with Mummey is mingled with fat earth wherein the seed of herbs agreeing with that disease are sown for the earth being sifted and mixed with Mummey is put into an earthen pot and the seeds are sown therein and watered with the washing of the diseased member or of the whole body if it be affected so in time all the Diseases are transplanted into those seeds proper to the Disease if the time require it they are watered every day with the washings of the part as is aforesaid This done expect till the herbs begin to sprout and when it is time transplant them into the like earth and so thou shalt see that as the Herbs increase the Disease will wear away and at length be cured There be that when the Herbs be ripe pull them up and dry them in the smoak or throws them into a running water or use them some other way as best agreeing with experience And if the Mummey wherewith the Magnet is impregnate be not diseased then the Plant will be impregnate with the vital spirit of him whose Mummey it was wherewith thou mayest do strange things So then understand well what I have said But chuse you Herbs fit for the purpose and be not deceived for every thing is not good for every thing but they dispense their spirits every thing according to its proper gifts for otherwayes worketh the spirit joyned to Vervine and otherwayes to Carduus or Angelica 2. Implantation is almost done as Insemination is but here the herbs are to be taken with their roots alone and implanted in the like earth as is said so prepared and so ordered and watered nay in this case it is best if the herbs have no other water at all for so they will be as it were constrained to receive and appropriate the Mummey with the greater violence which is also good in semination except the too much tendernesse and loose softnesse of the seed command the contrary which here you need not fear but in all things take experience to thy help One thing is to be noted in them both that if the Plant die having attracted some ill quality before the Disease be fully cured then another of the same kind must be implanted in the same or rather the like Earth 3. Imposition must be thus done Take the Mummey of the diseased members or the Excrements or both take as many as thou canst get put them into a Tree or an Herb between the bark and the wood or else put them into a hole stop it with a pin made of the same wood and put upon it clammy earth if thou put the Mummey or the Excrements between the bark and the wood cover the Wound with the bark again and with Earth as they do in Inoculation and leave the Mummey there and if thou work well thou wilt quickly see the effect Yet thou must know that some Diseases are sooner cured by Insemination and some by Imposition namely the fixed by this and the volatile by that but if I might perswade thee thou shouldest in every Disease do all things for Nature is not burdened with these and consider what shall be said in the practice for there we are resolved to set down nothing but what we have proved Moreover some there are that to very good purpose have used Imposition There is to be noted that where thou desirest a lasting effect you use long-lived Trees and where a speedy effect them that grow apace Remember the Caution given in the last Chapter As soon as thou hast thy will take out all that thou didst put in lest too much attraction of the spirit do hurt the Patient 4. Irroration must be done that by it transplantation might be perfected Thou shalt water convenient herbs or a Tree and that every day till the Disease be cured with Urine Sweat Dung or the washings of the members or of the whole body as the Disease requireth either severally or all mixed together though no man will deny but the mixture is better But this way I would rather use as one help to the other than alone howsoever thou do yet this alwayes observe That as soon as Irroration is done thou cover all the Irrorated Earth with new Earth lest the Air dissipate the mummiall virtue in the things before the Plants can draw it 5. Inescation is when the Mummie is given to a Wight for food for then the vitall heat of the Wight unites the Mummie to its self And the onely quality by which the spirit was diseased and so restores to health the body whence the Mummie was taken the vitall spirit of the Patient being by this means cleansed by the operation of the spirit of the beast but this especially is here to be noted that as soon as the beast is fully and wholly infected with the disease it be then killed lest it do again begin to hurt that body from whence the Mummie was taken afterwards if the body be not throughly cured when that beast is infected and killed give another beast a portion of the like Mummie and reiterate the operation untill the Patient be whole and in this case blood rightly putrified or to speak more truly fermented is especially to be used and