<!DOCTYPE ETS PUBLIC "-//UMDLPS//DTD EEBOPROOF 2.0//EN">
<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2012-03-08</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Olivia Bottum</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Did text and markup review.</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
</REVDESCR>
</TEMPHEAD>
<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="A95921">
<STC T="W">V386B</STC>
<STC T="C">R226487</STC>
<BIBNO T="oclc">42475269</BIBNO>
<VID>151429</VID>
</IDG>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P><HI>THE COVNT OF GABALIS: OR, CONFERENCES ABOUT Secret Sciences.</HI></P>
<P>Rendered out of <HI>French</HI> into <HI>Engli&s;h.</HI></P>
<P><HI>By</HI> A. L. <HI>A. M.</HI></P>
<Q>Quod tanto impendio ab&s;conditur, etian &s;olummodo demon&s;trare de&s;truere e&s;t <BIBL><HI>Tertullian.</HI></BIBL></Q>
<P>LONDON, <HI>Printed by</HI> Tho. James <HI>for</HI> Robert Harford, <HI>at the</HI> Angel <HI>in</HI> Cornhil, <HI>near the</HI> Royal Exchange,</P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="2">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<HEAD>The Count of GABALIS: OR, Conferenccs about Secret Sciences.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="conference">
<HEAD>The Fir&s;t Conference about Secret Sciences.</HEAD>
<P>PEACE be with the Soul of the Noble Count of <HI>GABALIS,</HI> who, as I am informed by Let|ter, died lately of an <HI>Apoplexy.</HI> The curious Heads, I know, will be &s;ure to &s;ay that that is a common Death to tho&s;e who are bad husbands of the Secrets of the <HI>Sages;</HI> and that ever &s;ince the ble&s;&s;ed <HI>Raymond Lully</HI> pronounced the Sentence in his la&s;t will, his Execu|tor
<PB N="2" REF="3"> an Angel is always ready to wring off the Neck of all tho&s;e who indi&s;creetly reveal the My&s;teries of Philo&s;ophers.</P>
<P>But let them not be ra&s;h in condemn|ing that Learned Man, without being clearly informed of his Conduct; It is true, he di&s;covered all to me, but it was with all imaginable Cabali&s;tick cir|cum&s;pection. This is a te&s;timony due to the memory of him who was zealous in the Religion of his Fathers the Philo&s;o|phers, and who would have burnt, ra|ther than prophaned its Sanctity, by opening his mind to any unde&s;erving <HI>Prince,</HI> to any ambitious or inconti|nent <HI>Per&s;on;</HI> three &s;orts of People in all times excommunicated by the <HI>Sages.</HI> I have the good fortune not to be a <HI>Prince,</HI> I have but little <HI>Ambition,</HI> and it will appear in the &s;equel that I have even a little more <HI>Cha&s;tity</HI> than is requi&s;ite to a <HI>Philo&s;opher:</HI> He found me of a do|cile mind, curious, and not ea&s;ie &s;tartled I want but a little <HI>Melancholy</HI> to make all tho&s;e who blame the Count of <HI>Ga|bal<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">s</HI> for having concealed nothing from me, acknowledge that I was a Suject proper enough for <HI>Secret Sciences.</HI> The
<PB N="3" REF="3"> truth is, without <HI>Melancholy</HI> no great progre&s;s can be made in them; but the little that I had, did not di&s;courage him. You have (he has many times told me) <HI>Saturn</HI> in an Angle, in his Hou&s;e and retrograde; you cannot but one day be as <HI>Melancholy</HI> as a <HI>Sage</HI> ought to be; for the wi&s;e&s;t of Men (as we know in the <HI>Cab<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">l</HI>) had, as you have, <HI>Jupiter</HI> in the A<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">cendant, and yet it is not known that ever he laughed in his life time; &s;o powerful was the impre&s;|&s;ion of his <HI>Saturn,</HI> though it was much weaker than yours.</P>
<P>It is my <HI>Saturn</HI> then, and not the Count of <HI>Gabalis,</HI> that the curious Heads &s;hould quarrel with, if I like better to divulge than practice their <HI>Secrets.</HI> If the <HI>Stars</HI> fail in their duty, the Count of <HI>Gabalis</HI> is not in the fault; and if I have not that greatne&s;s of <HI>Soul,</HI> as to a&s;pire to become Ma&s;ter of <HI>Nature,</HI> to overturn the Elements, to conver&s;e with &s;upream <HI>Intelligences,</HI> to command <HI>Sp<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">rits,</HI> to create <HI>New Worlds,</HI> to &s;peak to <HI>God</HI> in his dreadful <HI>Throne,</HI> and to oblige the <HI>Cherubin</HI> that guards the en|try of the <HI>Earthly Paradi&s;e,</HI> to let me
<PB N="4" REF="4"> fetch &s;ome walks in the <HI>Garden;</HI> I am the onely <HI>Per&s;on</HI> that am mo&s;t to be blamed: <HI>Men</HI> mu&s;t not therefore in&s;ult over the memory of that rare <HI>Man,</HI> and &s;ay that he died, becau&s;e he told me &s;o many things. Is it impo&s;&s;ible, but that he may have fallen in a Combat with &s;ome rug|ged <HI>Goblin,</HI> &s;eing the fortune of <HI>War</HI> is various? Perhaps talking to God in his inflamed <HI>Throne,</HI> he could not forbear to look in his <HI>Face:</HI> Now it is written, <HI>That no Man can &s;ee his Face and live.</HI> It may be he is only dead in appearance, according to the cu&s;tom of <HI>Philo&s;ophers,</HI> who &s;eem to die in one place and tran&s;port them&s;elves to another. How|ever the matter be, I cannot believe that the manner how he intru&s;ted me with his <HI>Trea&s;ures,</HI> de&s;erves any puni&s;h|ment. And now I'll tell ye how it hap|pened:</P>
<P>Common &s;en&s;e having made me al|ways &s;u&s;pect that there was a great deal of emptine&s;s in what they call, <HI>Secret Science,</HI> I was never tempted to ca&s;t away my time in turning over the Books that treat on them; but likewi&s;e thinking it unrea&s;onable, without any ground, to
<PB N="5" REF="4"> condemn all others that apply them|&s;elves to that <HI>Study,</HI> who are otherways many times Di&s;creet and Learned Men, and in repute both for the Gown and Sword; I thought it my be&s;t (that I might not be unju&s;t, nor cumbered with tedious <HI>Study</HI>) to pretend my &s;elf &s;mit|ten with all tho&s;e <HI>Sciences,</HI> when I met with any that I could learn were touched with the &s;ame. I had at fir&s;t better &s;uc|ce&s;s than I could even have expected. For how my&s;teriou&s;ly re&s;erved &s;oever the&s;e Blades affect to be, yet they de|&s;ire no better than to vent their imagi|nations and the new di&s;coveries that they pretend to have made in <HI>Nature;</HI> &s;o that in a few days I became the con|fident of the chiefe&s;t of them: I never wanted one or other of them in my <HI>Stu|dy,</HI> which I had purpo&s;ely furni&s;hed with their fanta&s;tical <HI>Authors.</HI> No Learn|ed Stranger pa&s;&s;ed this way but I had notice of it; and in a word, in a very &s;hort time I wanted nothing, if ye'll ex|cept the <HI>Sciences,</HI> to make me a great <HI>Per&s;on, Princes,</HI> great <HI>Lords, Gown-men,</HI> fair <HI>Ladies,</HI> and ugly ones too, <HI>Doctors, Prelates, Monks, Nuns,</HI> and all &s;orts
<PB N="6" REF="5"> of <HI>People</HI> were my <HI>Companions.</HI> Some were for <HI>Angels,</HI> &s;ome for the <HI>Devil;</HI> &s;ome for their <HI>Genius,</HI> &s;ome for <HI>Incubus</HI>'s; &s;ome for the cure of all <HI>Di&s;ea&s;es,</HI> &s;ome for the <HI>Stars,</HI> &s;ome for the <HI>Secrets</HI> of <HI>Divinity,</HI> and generally all for the <HI>Phi|lo&s;ophers Stone.</HI></P>
<P>They all agreed that tho&s;e great <HI>Se|crets,</HI> and e&s;pecially the <HI>Philo&s;ophers Stone,</HI> are hard to be found out, and that few po&s;&s;e&s;s them; but every one of them had &s;o good an opinion of them|&s;elves in particular, as to believe they were of the number of the Elect. By good fortune at that time the chief of the Tribe impatiently expected the com|ing of a <HI>German Lord</HI> and great <HI>Caba|li&s;t,</HI> who&s;e Lands lie towards the Fron|tiers of <HI>Poland:</HI> He promi&s;ed, by Let|ter, to come and vi&s;it the Children of the <HI>Philo&s;ophers</HI> at <HI>Paris,</HI> and to pa&s;s from <HI>France</HI> into <HI>England,</HI> I was ap|pointed to write an An&s;wer to the Let|ter of that great Man, and therewith &s;ent <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">im the figure of my <HI>Nativity,</HI> that he might judge by it if I might a&s;pire to &s;upream <HI>Wi&s;dom.</HI> My <HI>Figure</HI> and <HI>Letter</HI> had the good fortune to procure the
<PB N="7" REF="5"> honour of this An&s;wer from him, <HI>That I &s;hould be one of the fir&s;t he would &s;ee at</HI> Paris, <HI>and that if Heaven oppo&s;ed not, it &s;hould not be his fault if I were not admit|ted into the &s;ociety of the</HI> Sages.</P>
<P>That I might improve this happine&s;s, I kept a regular corre&s;pondence with this illu&s;trious <HI>German.</HI> Now and then I propo&s;ed to him great <HI>Doubts,</HI> backed with as much <HI>Rea&s;on</HI> as I could, con|cerning the Harmony of the <HI>World,</HI> the Numbers of <HI>Pythagoras,</HI> the Revelation of St. <HI>John,</HI> and the fir&s;t Chapter of <HI>Ge|ne&s;is.</HI> The &s;umblimity of the&s;e matters ravi&s;hed him, he wrote to me of &s;trange and unheard of <HI>Wonders;</HI> and I well perceived that I had to do with a Man of a &s;trong and va&s;t <HI>Imagination</HI> I have about Three or four &s;core of his Letters, of &s;o extraordinary a &s;tile, that when&s;o|ever I was alone in my Study, I could read nothing but them.</P>
<P>One day as I was admiring one of the &s;ublime&s;t of them, a Man of an excel|lent meene entered my Study, who &s;a|luting me with Gravity, &s;aid to me in <HI>French,</HI> but with the accent of a &s;tr<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">n|ger: <HI>Adore, my Son, ad<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">re the great and
<PB N="8" REF="6"> good God of the</HI> Sages, <HI>and let it never puff you up with Pride, that he &s;ends one of the Children of Wi&s;dom, to receive you into their Society, and to impart to you the Wonders of his Omnipotence.</HI></P>
<P>I was a little a&s;toni&s;hed at the novelty of the <HI>Greeting,</HI> and began at fir&s;t to doubt whether Men have not Appari|tions &s;ometimes: however re-a&s;&s;uring my &s;elf as well as I could, and looking on him with as much Civility as the little fear that I was in could allow of; <HI>Whoever you be,</HI> &s;aid I, <HI>you who&s;e Com|pliment is not of this World, you do me much honour by this Vi&s;it; but do me the favour, if you plea&s;e, that before I adore the God of the</HI> Sages, <HI>I may know what</HI> Sages <HI>you mean, and of what God you &s;peak; if it be with your conveniency, take that Seat, and tell me what</HI> God, Sages, Secrecy, <HI>and</HI> Wonders <HI>of</HI> Omnipotence, <HI>are tho&s;e you talk of; and fir&s;t or la&s;t, as you plea&s;e, to what &s;ort of Creature I have the honour to &s;peak.</HI></P>
<P><HI>You receive me Sir very wi&s;ely</HI> (an&s;wer|ed he laughing, and taking the Seat I offered him) <HI>You de&s;ire me at fir&s;t to im|part matters to you, which if you plea&s;e,
<PB N="9" REF="6"> I &s;hall not do too day. The Compliment I made you, are the words of the</HI> Sages, <HI>when fir&s;t they acco&s;t tho&s;e whom they have re|&s;olved to open their heart unto, and to di&s;|cover their My&s;teries. I thought that being &s;o Learned, as you have appeared to me by your Letters, that Salutation would not have &s;urprized you; and that it &s;hould have been the mo&s;t acceptable Compliment that the Count of</HI> Gabalis <HI>could make you. Ah! Sir,</HI> cried I (calling to mind the great part I had to act) <HI>How &s;hall I do to de|&s;erve &s;o much goodne&s;s? Is it po&s;&s;ible that the greate&s;t of Men is now in my Study, and that the great Count of</HI> Gabalis <HI>ho|nours me with a Vi&s;it?</HI></P>
<P><HI>I am the lea&s;t of</HI> Sages (replied he with a &s;erious Countenance) <HI>and God who di&s;pen&s;es the Rays of his wi&s;dom, with the weight and mea&s;ure that be&s;t plea&s;es his Maje&s;ty, has be&s;towed on me but a ve|ry &s;mall portion, in re&s;pect of that which with a&s;toni&s;hment I admire in my Fellows. I am in hopes that you may one day equal them, if I dare judge &s;o by the Figure of your Nativity, which you did me the honour to &s;end me: But give me leave Sir</HI> (ad|ded he laughing) <HI>to blame you for having
<PB N="10" REF="7"> at fir&s;t taken me for an Appartion.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Ah! not for an Apparition</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>but I confe&s;s, Sir, that calling to mind of a &s;ud|den, how</HI> Cardan <HI>reports that his Father was vi&s;ited one day in his Study by &s;even Strangers clothed in different Colours, who di&s;cour&s;ed to him very odly of their Nature and Imployment. &mdash; I under&s;tand you</HI> (&s;aid the Count, interrupting me) <HI>they were</HI> Sylphes, <HI>of whom I &s;hall one day talk to you, who are a kind of aereal Sub&s;tance, that come &s;ometimes to con&s;ult the</HI> Sages <HI>a|bout the Books of</HI> Averroes, <HI>which they are not over-skill'd in,</HI> Cardan <HI>was a Block|head for publi&s;hing that in his Book of</HI> Sub|tilities; <HI>he f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">und the Memoires among&s;t the Books of his Father, who was one of us, and who perceiving his Son to be naturally a blab tongue would not in&s;truct him in any thing that was &s;ublime, but let him onely tamper and amu&s;e him&s;elf with ordinary</HI> A|&s;trology; <HI>by which he could not &s;o much as fore&s;ee that his Son &s;hould be hanged. That Rogue is the cau&s;e you did me the wrong to take me for a</HI> Sylphe. <HI>Wrong</HI> (replied I) <HI>How, Sir, am I then &s;o unhappy as .... that does not trouble me</HI> (&s;aid he, inter|rupting) <HI>you are not obliged to know that
<PB N="11" REF="7"> all tho&s;e elementary</HI> Spirits <HI>are our Di&s;ci|ples, that they are too much honoured when we conde&s;cend to instruct them; and that the lea&s;t of our</HI> Sages <HI>is more knowing and powerful than all the&s;e dandy prat Gentle|men. But we &s;hall di&s;cour&s;e of that another time; it is enough for too day that I have had the &s;atisfaction to &s;ee yeu. Endeavonr my Son to become worthy of receiving the</HI> Cabali&s;tick Light; <HI>the hour of your Rege|neration is come; and you your &s;elf mu&s;t be in the fault if you become not a new Crea|ture. Pray ardently to him who alone has the power of creating new Hearts, that he would <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ive you one capable of the great matters that I have to tell you, and that he would put it into my heart to keep from you none of his My&s;teries.</HI> With that he aro&s;e, and embracing me, without giving me time to an&s;wer, <HI>Farewel my Son</HI> (continued he) <HI>I mu&s;t go &s;ee our Friends who are here at</HI> Paris, <HI>and when that is done you &s;hall hear of me. In the mean time,</HI> Watch, pray, hope, and hold your peace.</P>
<P>Having &s;aid &s;o, he went out of my Study; and as I waited upon him out, I complained of the &s;hortne&s;s of his Vi|&s;it,
<PB N="12" REF="8"> and that he had the Cruelty to leave me &s;o &s;oon, after he had given me a glimp&s;e of his extraordinary Knowledge. But having with very good Grace a&s;&s;ured me that I &s;hould lo&s;e nothing by the de|lay, he took Coach, and left me in a &s;urprize not to be expre&s;&s;ed. I could not believe my Eyes or Ears; <HI>I am &s;ure</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>that this is a Man of great Quality, that he hath an E&s;tate of Fifty thou&s;and Livers a year; and appears otherways to be a very accompli&s;hed Per&s;on: Can he be gulled with th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;e Follies? He has talked very gallantly to me of</HI> Sylphes. <HI>Is he in effect a Sorcerer, and have I been hitherto in a mi&s;take, in believing that there were none? But likewi&s;e, if there be Sorcerers, are they as devote as this Man &s;eems to be?</HI></P>
<P>I could not tell what to think of all this, yet I was re&s;olved to &s;ee what it would come to, though I well fore-&s;aw that I &s;hould be baited with Sermons, and that the Familiar which pre&s;&s;ed him was a great morali&s;t and holder forth.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="conference">
<PB N="13" REF="8">
<HEAD>The Second Conference about Secret Science.</HEAD>
<P>THe Count was willing to give me the whole night to &s;pend in Prayer, and next morning by break of day he acquainted me by a Note that he would come to my Hou&s;e about Eight of the Clock, and that if I thought fit we &s;hould go abroad and take the Air together. He came according to his promi&s;e, and af|ter mutual Civilities pa&s;t; Let us go (&s;aid he) to &s;ome place where we may be at liberty, and where our Conference may not be interrupted. <HI>Ruel,</HI> &s;aid I, &s;eems to me both plea&s;ant and &s;olitary enough. Let us go thither then, replied he, &s;o we took Coach, and on the way I carefully ob&s;erved my new Ma&s;ter. I never remarked &s;o great a &s;tock of Sa|tisfaction in any Man, as appeared in all his Carriage; he had a more &s;edate and compo&s;ed mind, than a Sorcerer I thought could have. He had the a&s;pect of a Man who&s;e Con&s;cience upbraided
<PB N="14" REF="9"> him with nothing that was foul; and I was very impatient to hear him enter upon the matter; not being able to conceive, how a Man who in all things el&s;e appeared to me &s;o judicious and accompli&s;hed, could be deluded by the Vi&s;ions with which I perceived him inf<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters">ted the day before. He talked Divinely of Policy, and was ravi&s;hed to hear that I had read <HI>Plato</HI> on that Subject. You'll need all that one day (&s;aid he) more than now you are aware of; and if we fadge to day, it is not impo&s;&s;ible but that in proce&s;s of time you may have occa&s;ion to put in pra|ctice tho&s;e <HI>Sage<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI>-Maximes. With that we entered into <HI>Ruel,</HI> and went into the Garden; but the Count di&s;daining to admire the Beauties of the place, march|ed &s;traight towards the <HI>Labyrinth.</HI></P>
<P>Perceiving that we were in as &s;olitary a place as he could de&s;ire; I prai&s;e (cried he, lifting up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven) I prai<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">e the Eternal Wi&s;dom, that he hath put it into my mind to con|ceal nothing from you of his ineffable Truth. How happy will you be, my Son! if he have the goodne&s;s to endue your
<PB N="15" REF="9"> Soul with the Di&s;po&s;itions that &s;o high My&s;teries require. You are now to learn how to command all Nature; God alone &s;hall be your Ma&s;ter, and the <HI>Sages</HI> onely your Peers. The &s;upream Intelligences &s;hall think it their honour to obey your de&s;ires; the Devils &s;hall not dare to appear where you are, your voice &s;hall make them tremble in the pottomle&s;s Pit, and all the invi&s;ible Peo|ple who inhabit the four Elements, will reckon them&s;elves happy to be the Mini|&s;ters of your Plea&s;ures. I adore thee, O great God! in that thou ha&s;t crowned Man with &s;o much Glory, and made him Monarch over all the Works of thine Hands. Do you feel my Son (&s;aid he turning to me) do you feel that Heroick Ambition, which is a &s;ure Character of the Children of Wi&s;dom? Dare you de&s;ire to &s;erve none but God alone, and to bear rule over every thing which is not God? Have you learnt yet what it is to be Man? And is it not tedious to you to be a Slave; &s;eeing you are born to be Soveraign? And if you entertain tho&s;e noble thoughts, as the Figure of your Nativity &s;uffers me not to doubt, Con|&s;ider
<PB N="16" REF="10"> deliberately with your &s;elf if you have the Courage and Re&s;olution to re|nounce all things that may be a hinde|rance to you in attaining to that pitch of Elevation for which you are born? He &s;topt there, and fixed his Eyes upon me, as if he expected my An&s;wer, or endeavoured to read it in my heart.</P>
<P>How much the beginning of his Di&s;|cour&s;e made me hope that we &s;hould quickly come to the point, &s;o much did his la&s;t words make me de&s;pair of it. The word <HI>Renounce</HI> &s;tarttled me, and I made no doubt but that he was going to propo&s;e to me the renouncing of my Bapti&s;m or Paradi&s;e. So not knowing which way to come off: Renounce Sir (&s;aid I) how! mu&s;t I renounce any thing then? Without doubt you mu&s;t (replied he) and that is &s;o ab&s;olutely nece&s;&s;ary, that it is the fir&s;t thing you mu&s;t do. I can|not tell if you can re&s;olve to do it: But I know very well that Wi&s;dom dwells not in a body &s;ubject to &s;in, as it enters not into a Soul prepo&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed with error or malice. The <HI>Sages</HI> will never admit of you into their Society, if you renounce not one thing which is incon&s;i&s;tent with wi&s;dom.
<PB N="17" REF="10"> <HI>You mu&s;t</HI> (added he very &s;oftly, laying his Mouth to my Ear) <HI>renounce all Carnal dealing with Women.</HI></P>
<P>At that odd Propo&s;ition I bur&s;t forth in Laughter. You have let me go upon very ea&s;ie terms; Sir (&s;aid I) I expected you &s;hould have propo&s;ed to me &s;ome &s;trange Renunciation; but &s;ince all your Quar|rel is with Women, the thing is done long ago: I am cha&s;te enough, I thank God for it: Neverthele&s;s Sir, &s;ince <HI>So|lomon</HI> was a wi&s;er Man than ever I &s;hall be perhaps, and that all his Wi&s;dom could not hinder him from being cor|rupted: Tell me, if you plea&s;e, what Expedient do ye Gentlemen of the <HI>Cabal</HI> take to forgo that Sex; and what in|convenience would it be if in the Para|di&s;e of Philo&s;ophers every <HI>Adam</HI> &s;hould have his <HI>Eve.</HI></P>
<P>You ask great Matters (replied he) con&s;ulting with him&s;elf if he &s;hould An|&s;wer my Que&s;tion) Neverthele&s;s &s;ince I perceive that you will without difficul|ty renounce Women, I will tell you one of the Rea&s;ons which hath obliged the <HI>Sages</HI> to exact this condition from their Di&s;ciples; and by that you'll know
<PB N="18" REF="11"> in what Ignorance live all tho&s;e who are not of our number.</P>
<P>When you &s;hall be li&s;ted among the Children of the Philo&s;ophers, and your Eyes fortified by the u&s;e of the mo&s;t Sa|cred Medicine; you'll at fir&s;t di&s;cover that the Elements are inhabited by mo&s;t perfect Creatures, whom the &s;in of wretched <HI>Adam</HI> hath deprived his too wretched Po&s;terity of the Knowledge of. This immen&s;e &s;pace which is be|twixt the Earth and the Heavens, has far more noble Inhabitants than Birds and Gnats; tho&s;e va&s;t Seas have many other Gue&s;ts be&s;ides Whales and Dol|phins; the depth of the Earth is not made onely for Moles; and the more noble Element of Fire was not created to remain void and u&s;ele&s;s.</P>
<P>The Air is full of an innumerable mul|titude of People of Humane Shape, in appearance &s;omewhat fierce, but in reality tractable; great lovers of Scien|ces, Subtle, Officious to the <HI>Sages,</HI> and the Enemies of the Fooli&s;h and Igno|rant. Their Wives and Daughters are Ma&s;culine Beauties, &s;uch as they paint the <HI>Amazones.</HI> How Sir (cried I) would
<PB N="19" REF="11"> you make me believe that tho&s;e <HI>Goblins</HI> are married?</P>
<P>Startle not, my Son, at &s;o &s;mall a matter (replied he) believe that what I tell you is a &s;olid truth; the&s;e are but the Elements of the Ancient <HI>Cabal,</HI> and it &s;hall be no Mans fault but your own if your own Eyes convince you not; but receive with a docile mind the Knowledge which God &s;ends to you by my Mini&s;tery. Forget all that you may have learnt of tho&s;e things in the Schools of the Ignorant; for it will vex you, when you are convinced by experience, to be forced to confe&s;s that you have been wilful out of purpo&s;e.</P>
<P>Hear me out then, and know that the Seas and Rivers are inhabited as well as the Air; the Anc<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ent <HI>Sages</HI> named that kind of People, <HI>&V;ndians</HI> or <HI>Nymphs.</HI> They begat few Males, and Women a|bound among&s;t them; they are ex|ceedingly Beautiful, and the Daughters of Men are not to be compared to them.</P>
<P>The Earth is filled almo&s;t to the Cen|ter with <HI>Gnomes,</HI> a People of a low Stature, the Guardians of Trea&s;ures,
<PB N="20" REF="12"> Mines and precious Stones. They are Ingenious, Friends to Man, and ea&s;ie to be commanded. They &s;upply the Children of the <HI>Sages</HI> with what Money they need, and de&s;ire no other Wages for their Service but the Glory of being commanded. The <HI>Gnom<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">des</HI> their Wives are little, but very pretty, and very curious in their Cloths.</P>
<P>As to the <HI>Salamanders,</HI> the inflamed In|habitants of the Fiery Region; they &s;erve Philo&s;ophers, but are not &s;olici|tous to court their Company, and their Daughters and Wives &s;uffer them&s;elves rarely to be &s;een. They have rea&s;on (&s;aid I, interrupting him) and I excu&s;e them from their appearance. Why? (&s;aid the Count) Why, Sir (replied I) and what have I to do to conver&s;e with &s;o ugly a Bea&s;t as a <HI>Salamander,</HI> whe|ther Male or Female? You are in the wrong (replied he) that is the notion that ignorant Painters and Engravers have of them: The Wives of <HI>Salaman|ders</HI> are Beautiful, and even more love|ly than all the re&s;t, &s;eeing they are of a purer Element. I will not in&s;i&s;t long
<PB N="21" REF="12"> in the di&s;cription of tho&s;e People, be|cau&s;e you your &s;elf &s;hall &s;ee them ea&s;ily and at lei&s;ure, if you have the curio&s;ity. You &s;hall &s;ee their Dre&s;s, their Diet, their Manners, Government, and ad|mirable Laws. You will be more charm|ed with the Beauty of their Mind, than with that of their Body; but you can|not but pity the&s;e poor wretches, when they tell you that their Soul is mor|tal, and that they have no hopes to en|joy that Eternal Being which they know, and religiou&s;ly adore. They'll tell you that being compo&s;ed of the pure&s;t parts of the Elements which they inhabit, and having no contrary qualities in them, &s;eeing they con&s;i&s;t but of one Element; they live many Ages before they die; but what is time in compari&s;on of Eter|nity? They mu&s;t return again into the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">by&s;s of nothing. That thought afflicts them &s;o much, that we have a hard <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ask of it to comfort them poor &s;ouls.</P>
<P>Our Fore-fathers the Philo&s;ophers, &s;peaking to God Face to Face, com|plained to him of the mi&s;ery of tho&s;e People; and God who&s;e mercy is infinite <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">evealed to them that it was not impo&s;|&s;ible
<PB N="22" REF="13"> to find a Remedy to that Evil. He informed them that in the &s;ame manner as Man by the Alliance that he hath contracted with God, has been partaker of Divini<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">y; &s;o the <HI>Sy<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">phes, Gnomes, Nymphes,</HI> and <HI>Salamand<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">rs,</HI> by the Alli|ance which they m ght co tract with Man, may be made pa<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">k<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">r<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> of Im|mortality. Thus a <HI>Ny<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ph</HI> or <HI>Sylphide</HI> becom<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">s c<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">pable of Immortality, and of the Bli&s;s to w<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ich we a&s;pire; when &s;he is &s;o happy as to be married to a <HI>Sage:</HI> and a <HI>Gnome</HI> or <HI>Sylphe</HI> cea&s;es to be mortal &s;o &s;oon as ever he e&s;pou&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">s one of our Daughters.</P>
<P>From thence &s;pring the Error of the fir&s;t Ages, of <HI>Tertullian, Ju&s;tin Martyr, Lactantius, Cyprian, Cl<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">m<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">nt</HI> of <HI>Al<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">xandria Athenagoras,</HI> a Chri&s;tian Philo&s;opher and generally of all the Writers of that Age. They learnt that tho&s;e elementary half men courted the Commerce of Maids; and from that they imagined that the Fall of the Angels was occa&s;ion|ed onely, by the love which they en|tertained for Women. Some <HI>Gnomes</HI> de&s;irous of immortality, courted the Fa|vour of our Daughters, and brough<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">
<PB N="23" REF="13"> them precious Stones, whereof they are naturally the Guardians: And the&s;e Au|thours thought, grounding their opi|nion on the Book of <HI>Enoch,</HI> not rightly under&s;tood, that tho&s;e were the Snares which the Amorous Angels laid for our Women. In the beginning the&s;e Children of Heaven begot famous Gyants on the Daughters of Men, who fell in love with them&punc; And the bad <HI>Cabali&s;ts, Jo&s;ephus</HI> and <HI>Philo</HI> (as all the Jews are ignorant) and after them the Authors whom I ju&s;t now named, as well as <HI>Origen</HI> and <HI>Macrobius,</HI> have affirmed they were Angels, not knowing that they were <HI>Sylphes</HI> and o|ther Elementary People, who by the name of the Children of <HI>Eloim,</HI> are di|&s;tingui&s;hed from the Children of Men. In like manner, that which the wi&s;e <HI>Au|gu&s;tin</HI> had the mode&s;ty not to decide, in relation to the Addre&s;&s;es which tho&s;e who were called <HI>Faunes</HI> or <HI>Satyrs,</HI> made to the <HI>Affricans</HI> of his time; is cleared by what I have &s;aid of the de&s;ire that all tho&s;e Inhabitants of the Elements have to be allied with Men, as the onely means to attain to the Immortality which they want.</P>
<PB N="24" REF="14">
<P>Ah! our <HI>Sages</HI> are far from imputing the Fall of the fir&s;t Angels to the love of Women, no more than they &s;ubmit Men &s;o much to the power of Devils, as to a&s;cribe to him the adventures of <HI>Nymphs</HI> and <HI>Sylphes,</HI> wherewith all Hi&s;tories abound. There was never any Crime in that Matter; it was onely <HI>Sylphes</HI> endeavouring to become Immor|tal. Their innocent Pur&s;uits are &s;o far from &s;candali&s;ing Philo&s;ophers, that they have appeared to us &s;o ju&s;t, that we have all with one con&s;ent re&s;olved to give our &s;elves to no other Plea&s;ure but the immortalizing of <HI>Nymphs</HI> and <HI>Syl|phides.</HI></P>
<P>God, God (cried I) what is this I hear? Is there no end of the f....? Yes, my Son (interrupted the Count) admire that there is no end of the Feli|city of Philo&s;ophers! In&s;tead of Wo|men, who&s;e frail Charms are quickly o|ver, and are followed with gha&s;tly Wrinkles, the <HI>Sages</HI> enjoy Beauties that never grow old, and whom they have the Glory to render immortal. Reflect on the Love and Gratitude of tho&s;e in|vi&s;ible Mi&s;tre&s;&s;es: and with what eager|ne&s;s
<PB N="25" REF="14"> they de&s;ire to plea&s;e the Philo&s;o|pher, who applies him&s;elf to procure them Immortality.</P>
<P>Ah! Sir, I renounce (cried I once more.) Yes my Son (continued he a|gain, without giving me leave to make an end) renounce the vain and peri&s;hing plea&s;ures that are found among&s;t Women; the Faire&s;t of them looks Gha&s;tly, when compared to the meane&s;t <HI>Sylphide:</HI> our <HI>Sage</HI> Embraces are never dogg'd with a|ny the lea&s;t di&s;ta&s;te. Mi&s;erable Igno|rants, how much are ye to be pitied, that ye cannot ta&s;te of Philo&s;ophical De|lights.</P>
<P>And mi&s;erable Count of <HI>Gabalis</HI> (&s;aid I with a tone made up of Anger and Compa&s;&s;ion) let me at length tell you, that I renounce that di&s;tracted Wi&s;dom; that your Vi&s;ionary Philo&s;ophy &s;eems to me ridiculous, that I dete&s;t the&s;e abo|bominable Embraces that couple you to <HI>Sprights;</HI> and that I &s;hake for fear, lea&s;t one or other of your pretended <HI>Sylphides</HI> ha&s;ten to carry you to Hell in the mid&s;t of your tran&s;ports; for fear that &s;uch a worthy Gentleman as you are, &s;hould at length perceive the folly of that fan|ta&s;tical
<PB N="26" REF="15"> Zeal, and repent of &s;o hainous a Crime.</P>
<P>Ho, ho (an&s;wered he, &s;tarting three or four &s;teps back, and looking on me angrily) a Cur&s;e on that untractable Spirit of thine. I confe&s;s his Carriage put me into a fright, but it was far wor&s;e, when I &s;aw, that drawing a&s;ide, he pulled a Paper out of his Pocket, which I perceived at a di&s;tance to be full of Characters that I could not well di&s;cern. He read attentively, pelted and muttered to him&s;elf. I thought he was a rai&s;ing &s;ome Spirits to de&s;troy me, and repented a little of my incon&s;ide|rate Zeal. If I come off well at this bout (&s;aid I) I'll never fear <HI>Cabali&s;t</HI> more. I had fixed mine Eyes &s;tedfa&s;tly upon him, as upon a Judge that was going to &s;entence me to death; when I perceived his Countenance clear up again. It is hard for you (&s;aid he laughing, and re|turning towards me) it is hard for you to kick again&s;t pricks, you are a Ve&s;&s;el of Election. Heaven has de&s;tin'd you for the greate&s;t <HI>Cabali&s;t</HI> of your Age. Here is the Figure of your Nativity, that cannot fail, if it happen not pre&s;ently
<PB N="27" REF="15"> and by my means, it will be when your Retrograde <HI>Saturn</HI> &s;hall think fit.</P>
<P>Nay, God Sir, If it be my luck to become a <HI>Sage</HI> (&s;aid I) no Man, I a&s;&s;ure you &s;hall ever have a hand in it, except the great <HI>Gabalis;</HI> but to &s;peak freely, I am &s;omewhat afraid you'll find it no ea&s;ie task, to per&s;wade me to this Phi|lo&s;ophick Gallantry. Is it then, becau&s;e you are &s;o bad a Naturali&s;t (replied he) as not to believe the Exi&s;tence of the&s;e People? I cannot tell (&s;aid I) but I am &s;till of opinion that they are but <HI>Gob|lins</HI> in di&s;gui&s;e. Will you &s;till give greater credit to your Nur&s;e (an&s;wered he) than to Natural Rea&s;on; than to <HI>Plato, Pythagoras, Cel&s;us, P&s;ellus, Pro|clus, Porphyrius, Jamblichus, Plotinus, Tri&s;megi&s;tus, Noll us, Dorneus, Fluddus,</HI> than to the great <HI>Philippus Aurelius Theophra&s;tus Bomba&s;tus Paracel&s;us</HI> of <HI>Honeinhem;</HI> and all the re&s;t of our Com|panions?</P>
<P>I'll believe you Sir (&s;aid I) as much and more than all the&s;e Blades: But dear Sir, cannot you &s;o order matters with your Brethren, that I be not o|bliged to melt away in love with the&s;e
<PB N="28" REF="16"> Elementary La&s;&s;es? Alas! (replied he) you are at your liberty, no Man is forced to love; but though few of the <HI>Sages</HI> are proof again&s;t their Charms, yet there have been &s;ome, who re&s;erving them&s;elves wholly to greater Matters (as you &s;hall know hereafter) have de|nied that honour to <HI>Nymphs.</HI> I'll be one of tho&s;e then (an&s;wered I) for indeed I can|not bring my &s;elf to a re&s;olution to lo&s;e time in u&s;ing of the Ceremonies, which as I have heard a <HI>Prelat</HI> &s;ay, are nece&s;&s;ary for obtaining the Commerce of tho&s;e <HI>Spirits.</HI> That <HI>Prelat</HI> knew not what he &s;aid (replied the <HI>Count</HI>) for you &s;hall one day &s;ee that they are not <HI>Spirits;</HI> and be&s;ides, never did a <HI>Sage</HI> u&s;e either Ceremonies or Super&s;tition, for gaining the Familiarity of <HI>Spirits,</HI> nor of the <HI>People</HI> of whom we &s;peak.</P>
<P>A <HI>C<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">bali&s;t</HI> never acts but by Natural Principles; and if in our Books there be &s;ometimes hard Words, Characters and Fumigations to be found; that is onely to hide from the ignorant the Principles of Nature. Admire the &s;implicity of Nature in all her mo&s;t wonderful Ope|rations! and in that &s;implicity &s;o great,
<PB N="29" REF="16"> &s;o exact, and nece&s;&s;ary an Harmony, that in &s;pight of your Prejudices it will cure you of your weak Apprehen&s;ions. What I am about to tell you, we teach tho&s;e of our Di&s;ciples, whom we &s;uffer not to enter into the innermo&s;t Sanctuary of Nature; and yet will not deprive of the Society of the Elementary People, out of compa&s;&s;ion that we have for the &s;ame People.</P>
<P>The <HI>Salamanders,</HI> as you perhaps al|ready conceive, are compo&s;ed of the mo&s;t &s;ubtle parts of the Sphere of Fire, con|globated and organi&s;ed, by the influ|ence of the univer&s;al Fire (of which &s;ome time or other I will di&s;cour&s;e to you) &s;o called, becau&s;e it is the prin|ciple of all the Motions of Nature. In the &s;ame manner the <HI>Sylphs</HI> are com|po&s;ed of the pure&s;t atomes of Air, the <HI>Nymphs</HI> of the thinne&s;t particles of Wa|ter; and the <HI>Gnomes</HI> of the &s;ubtile&s;t parts of the Earth. <HI>Adam</HI> bore &s;ome propor|tion with the&s;e &s;o perfect Creatures, be|cau&s;e being made up of the pure&s;t part of the four Elements; he contained in him&s;elf the perfections of the&s;e four kinds of People, and was their Na|tural
<PB N="30" REF="17"> King. But when &s;in had precipi|tated him among the Excrements of the Elements (as you &s;hall &s;ee &s;ome other time) the Harmony was untuned, and becoming gro&s;s and impure, he bore no more proportion with tho&s;e &s;o pure and &s;ubtile Sub&s;tanc<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">s. What remedy to this evil? How is the Lute to be tuned again, and this lo&s;t Soveraignty retrived? O Nature! Why art thou &s;o little &s;tudied? Do not you conceive, my Son, with what &s;implicity Nature can re&s;tore Man to the Ble&s;&s;ings which he hath lo&s;t?</P>
<P>Alas! Sir (replied I) I am very igno|rant in all the&s;e &s;implicities. But it is very ea&s;ie however to be knowing in them (an&s;wered he.)</P>
<P>If we would recover the Empire over the <HI>Salamanders,</HI> we mu&s;t purifie and exalt the Element of Fire that is in us, and rai&s;e again the tone of that &s;lacken|ed String. There is no more to be done, but to concentrate the Fire of the World by concave mirrours in a Bowl of Gla&s;s; and this is the Operation which all the Ancients have religiou&s;ly concealed, until Divine <HI>Theophra&s;tus</HI> revealed it In that Bowl there is a Solary
<PB N="31" REF="17"> Powder made, which being of it &s;elf purified from the mixture of other Ele|ments; and being prepared according to Art, becomes in a very &s;hort time a Sovereign Remedy to exalt the Fire that is in us; and to <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters">ke us (if one may &s;ay &s;o) become of an igneous Nature. Then do the Inhabitants of the Sphere of Fire become our inferiors, and ravi&s;hed to &s;ee our mutual Harmo|ny re&s;tored, and that we are become like to them, they have the &s;ame love and friend&s;hip for us that they have for their own kind; all the re&s;pect which they owe to the Image and Vicegerent of their Creator, and all the care, that the de&s;ire of obtaining the immorta<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ity which they want, by our means, can make them excogitate. The truth is, as being more &s;ubtile and pure than tho&s;e of the other Elements, they live very long; &s;o they are not &s;o &s;olicitous in demanding Immortality from the <HI>Sages.</HI> You may make u&s;e of one of tho&s;e, my Son, if the aver&s;ion you talk of la&s;t always: probably you &s;hall never hear her &s;peak one word of that which you are &s;o much afraid of.</P>
<PB N="32" REF="18">
<P>The ea&s;e is not the &s;ame with the <HI>Sylphs, Gnomes,</HI> and <HI>Nymphs,</HI> for &s;eeing, as being &s;horter lived, they &s;tand more in need of us; &s;o their Familiarity is more ea&s;ily obtained. There is no more to be done for <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 word">, but to &s;top a bot|tle full of cong<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">obated Air, Water, or Earth, and &s;et it for a month in the Sun; and then to &s;eparate the Ele|ments according to Art, which above all is mo&s;t ea&s;ie to be done in the Water and Earth. It is wonder, what a &s;trange Load-&s;tone each of the&s;e Elements pu|rified are, to attract <HI>Nymphs, Sylphes,</HI> and <HI>Gnomes.</HI> As little almo&s;t as nothing taken of it daily for the &s;pace of &s;ome months, will let you &s;ee in the Air the republick volant of <HI>Sylphs;</HI> the <HI>Nymphs</HI> coming in crouds to the Shore; and the Guardians of Trea&s;ure opening Shop and laying out their Wealth. So that without Characters, Ceremonies, and barbarous Words, one becomes ab&s;o|lute over all tho&s;e People. They de|mand no Wor&s;hip from a <HI>Sage</HI> whom they know to be nobler than them|&s;elves. Thus venerable Nature teaches her Children to repair the Elements by
<PB N="33" REF="18"> the Elements. Thus is Harmony re|&s;tored. Thus does Man recover his Na|tural Empire, and can do all things in the Elements, without the Devil or black Art: You &s;ee now, my Son, that the <HI>Sages</HI> are more in<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters">cent than you imagine. What do you &s;ay?</P>
<P><HI>I admire you, Sir,</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>and I be|gin to fear that you will make me turn Apothecary. Ah! God forbid, my Child</HI> (cried he) <HI>your Nativity has not de&s;tin'd you for &s;uch trifles. On the contrary, I di&s;|charge you to trouble your Head about di|&s;tilling; I have told you that the</HI> Sages <HI>teach &s;uch things onely to tho&s;e whom they will not admit into their Society. You &s;hall have all the&s;e advantages, and many others more glorious and agreeable, by Philo&s;ophick Procedures of a far different Nature. I have on<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">y told you of the&s;e ways, that I might let you &s;ee the innocence of this Philo&s;ophy, and cure you of your panick fears.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Thanks be to God, Sir</HI> (an&s;wered I) <HI>my fear is not &s;o great now, as it was a while ago; and though I be not as yet re|&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">lved to embrace the offer that you pro|po&s;ed to me with the</HI> Salamanders: <HI>yet I
<PB N="34" REF="19"> have &s;till the curio&s;ity to be informed, how you have learnt that the&s;e</HI> Nymphs <HI>and</HI> Sylphs <HI>do die? In troth</HI> (replied he) <HI>they tell us &s;o, and we &s;ee them die. How can you &s;ee them die</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>&s;ince your Commerce renders them im<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ortal. You had &s;aid &s;ome|what</HI> (an&s;wered he) <HI>if the</HI> Sages <HI>were as many in number as tho&s;e People are; be|&s;ides, a great many of them had rather die than to run the ri&s;que of being as mi|&s;erable as they &s;ee the Devils are, by en|deavouring to attain to Immortality. It is the Devil that puts the&s;e thoughts into the<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">r Heads, for he does all he can to hinder the&s;e poor Creatures from becoming Im|mortal by our Alliance. So that I look, and you ought my Son, to look upon the A|ver&s;ion which you have to it, as a mo&s;t perni|cious temptation and uncharitable inclination.</HI></P>
<P>But further, as to the Death you have been &s;peaking of, What was it that obliged the <HI>Oracle</HI> of <HI>Apollo</HI> to &s;ay, That all who &s;pake in <HI>Oracles</HI> were dead as well as him&s;elf; as <HI>Porphiry</HI> re|ports? And what meant that voice, d'ye think, which was heard over all the Coa&s;ts of <HI>Italy,</HI> and &s;o terrified tho&s;e that were at Sea? <HI>The great Pan is dead.</HI>
<PB N="35" REF="19"> It was the People of the Air, who gave advice to the People of the Water, t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">at the Chief and mo&s;t Aged of the <HI>Sylphes</HI> was ju&s;t then expired.</P>
<P><HI>When that voice was heard</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>I think the World adored</HI> Pan <HI>and the</HI> Nymphs. <HI>The&s;e Gentlemen then, who&s;e Com|merce you preach to me, were the</HI> Pagan <HI>Gods?</HI></P>
<P><HI>It is true, my Son</HI> (replied he) <HI>the</HI> Sa|ges <HI>are far from thinking that the Devil had ever the power to make him&s;elf be a|dored; he is too mi&s;erable and weak ever to have had that Satisfaction and Autho|rity: but he may have per&s;waded tho&s;e Gue&s;ts of the Elements to appear to Men, and to procure Temples to be dedicated to them; who by the Natural Dominion that each of them have over the Element they po&s;&s;e&s;s; they troubled the Air and Sea, &s;hook the Earth, and &s;ent Thunder and Light|ning at their plea&s;ure: in&s;omuch that it was ea&s;ie for them to be taken for Deities, &s;o long as the Supream Being neglected the Salvation of the Nations. But the Devil obtained not all the advantage that he expected from his malice: for it came to pa&s;s by that, that</HI> Pan, <HI>the</HI> Nymphs, <HI>and other Elementary People, having found a means to change
<PB N="36" REF="20"> that commerce of Wor&s;hip into a commerce of Love (for you remember th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">t among the Ancients,</HI> Pan <HI>was the King of tho&s;e Gods, who were called</HI> Incubus's, <HI>and made love to Maids) many of the</HI> Pagans <HI>e&s;caped the &s;nares of the Devil; and &s;hall not burn in Hell Flames.</HI></P>
<P><HI>I under&s;tood you not, Sir</HI> (&s;aid I.) <HI>You will not under&s;tand me</HI> (continued he in a jearing tone and &s;miling) <HI>this is above your reach, and indeed &s;urpa&s;&s;es the reach of all your Doctors, who know not what true Natural Philo&s;ophy means. I'll tell you the great My&s;tery of all that part of Philo&s;ophy which concerns the Elements, and which (if you love your &s;elf) will cer|tainly remove that &s;o unphilo&s;ophical repug|nancy which you have te&s;tified to me this very day. Know then, my Son, and divulge not this great</HI> Arcanum <HI>to any <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">nwor|thy ignorant&punc; Know that as the</HI> Sylphs <HI>acquire Immortalily, by an Alliance which they contract with Men who are prede&s;ti|nated; even &s;o Men, who have no right to Eternal Glory; tho&s;e Wretches to whom Immortality is but a fatal advantage; for whom the Me&s;&s;ias was not &s;ent.....</HI></P>
<P><HI>Hold, hold, ye Gentlemen of the</HI> Cabal
<PB N="37" REF="20"> <HI>are</HI> Calvini&s;ts <HI>and</HI> Presbiterians <HI>then?</HI> (&s;aid I interrupting him.) <HI>We know not what that means, my Child</HI> (replied he briskly) <HI>and we &s;corn to inform our &s;elves about the differences of Sects and Religions, with which the ignorant are infatuated. We &s;tick to the Ancient R<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ligi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters">n of our Fore-fathers the Philo&s;ophers, wherein I mu&s;t needs &s;ometime or other in&s;truct you. But to return to the purpo&s;e, tho&s;e Men who&s;e &s;ad Immortality will prove but ever|la&s;ting mi&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ry; tho&s;e accur&s;ed Children whom the &s;upream Father hath for&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ken, have this relief &s;till, that they may become Mor|tal, by matching with Elementary People. So that you &s;ee that the</HI> Sages <HI>hazard nothing for Eternity; if they are prede&s;ti|nate, they have the Satisfaction, when they leave the Body, to carry to Heaven with them the</HI> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ylphide <HI>or</HI> Nymph <HI>whom they have immortalized; and if they are not prede|&s;tinate, the Commerce of the</HI> Sylphide <HI>renders their Soul mortal, and delivers them from the horrours of the &s;econd Death. Thus all the</HI> Nymphs, <HI>who were allied wiih the</HI> Pagans, <HI>e&s;caped the Clutches of the Devil, Thus the</HI> Sages, <HI>or the Friends of the Wi&s;e, to whom God puts it in our hearts
<PB N="38" REF="21"> to communicate any of the four Elementary Secrets (which I have pretty near di&s;covered to you) free them&s;elves from the danger of damnation.</HI></P>
<P>In &s;ober &s;adne&s;s, Sir (cried I, not daring to put him out of humour a|gain, and judging it fit to forbear tel|ling him openly my thoughts, until that he had di&s;covered to me all the Secrets of his Cabal; which by that pattern I concluded mu&s;t needs be very odd and plea&s;ant) In &s;ober &s;adne&s;s, you carry Wi&s;dom very far! and you had rea&s;on to &s;ay that it would &s;urpa&s;s the reach of all our Doctors. I am truly of opinion that this is al&s;o above the reach of all our Magi&s;trates: and that if they could find out who they are that make their e&s;cape from the Devil by this means (as ignorance is always unju&s;t) they would take the De|vils part again&s;t tho&s;e Fugitives, and trunch them &s;everely.</P>
<P>And it is for that rea&s;on (replied the Count) that I have recommended, and do religiou&s;ly recommend to you Secrecy. Your Judges are &s;trange Men! they condemn a mo&s;t innocent Action as
<PB N="39" REF="21"> a mo&s;t hainous Crime. What barbari|ty? to cau&s;e burn tho&s;e two Prie&s;ts whom the Prince of <HI>Mirandula</HI> &s;ays he knew; each of whom had his <HI>Sylphide</HI> for the &s;pace of forty years! What in|humanity was it to have put to death <HI>Jean Hervillier,</HI> who for the &s;pace of thirty &s;ix years, laboured in the immor|talizing of a <HI>Gnome!</HI> And how ignorant was <HI>Bodinus,</HI> to call her a Witch; and to take occa&s;ion from her adventure, to authorize the vulgar Fancies con|cerning Sorcerers; by a Book no le&s;s impertinent than that of his Republick is rational.</P>
<P>But it is late, and I con&s;ider not that you have not as yet eaten any thing. You &s;peak for your &s;elf, Sir (&s;aid I) for my own part I could hear you on till too morrow without trouble. Ah! for me (replied he laughing and going towards the door) it is evident that you know but little what Philo&s;ophy is. The <HI>Sages</HI> eat only for plea&s;ure, and never f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">r nece&s;&s;ity. I had a quite dif|ferent Notion of Wi&s;dom (an&s;wered I) I thought that a <HI>Sage</HI> ought not to eat but to &s;atisfie nece&s;&s;ity. You a|abu&s;e
<PB N="40" REF="22"> your &s;elf (&s;aid the Count) how long d'ye think our <HI>Sages</HI> can hold out without eating? What can I tell (&s;aid I) <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and <HI>El<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">as</HI> fa&s;ted forty days, your <HI>Sages</HI> without doubt come &s;ome few days &s;hort of them. A mighty matter indeed (replied he) the wi&s;e&s;t Man that ever was, the divine and almo&s;t adorable <HI>Paracel&s;us,</HI> a&s;&s;ures us that he has &s;een a great many <HI>Sages,</HI> who have &s;pent twenty years without eating the lea&s;t thing imaginable. He him&s;elf, before he attained to the Monarchy of Wi&s;dom, whereof we have ju&s;tly given him the Scepter; lived &s;everal years without taking any thing but half a Scruple of <HI>Solar Quinte&s;&s;ence.</HI> And if you would have the plea&s;ure to make any one live without eating; you have no more to do but to prepare the Earth, as I have told you may be prepared by the Society of <HI>Gnomes.</HI> That Earth be|ing applied to the Navil, and renewed when it is too dry, makes one without the lea&s;t trouble, di&s;pen&s;e with eating and drinking: as the Candid <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> affirms he had the experience for the &s;pace of &s;ix Months.</P>
<PB N="41" REF="22">
<P>But the u&s;e of the Catholick Cabali|&s;tick Medicine frees us much better from the trouble&s;ome nece&s;&s;ities, to which Nature &s;ubjects the Ignorant. We eat but when we plea&s;e, and all the &s;uperfluity of our Victuals evani&s;h|ing by in&s;en&s;ible tran&s;piration, we are never a&s;hamed of being Men. With that he held his Peace, perceiving that we were near our Servants. So we went to a Village to take a &s;light Bait, according to the cu&s;tom of the Hero's of Philo&s;ophy.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="conference">
<HEAD>The Third Conference about Secret Sciences.</HEAD>
<P>After Dinner we returned to the La|byrinth. I was pen&s;ive, and the pity that I had of the Counts Extrava|gancy, which I perceived would be very hard for me to cure, &s;uffered me not to divert my &s;elf with what he had &s;aid, &s;o much as I would have done, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">f there had been any hopes of bring|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ng him to his Wits. I ran&s;anck'd An|tiquity
<PB N="42" REF="23"> to find &s;ome Objection which he could not an&s;wer; for to alledge the Opinions of the Church to him, was in vain, &s;eeing he told me that he ad|hered only to the Ancient Religion of his Fore-fathers the Philo&s;ophers; and to attempt to convince a <HI>Cabali&s;t</HI> by rea&s;on, was a long and tedious task: and be&s;ides, I had no mind to di&s;pute again&s;t a Man who&s;e Principles as yet were not altogether known to me.</P>
<P>It came into my mind, that what he had told me of the fal&s;e Gods, to whom he &s;ub&s;tituted <HI>Sylphs</HI> and other Elemen|tary People, might be refuted by the <HI>Pagan Oracles,</HI> which the Scripture calls in all places <HI>Devils</HI> and not <HI>Sylphs.</HI> But &s;eeing I knew not whether in the Prin|ciples of the <HI>Cabal</HI> the Count would not attribute the Re&s;pon&s;es of the <HI>Ora|cles</HI> to &s;ome Natural Cau&s;e, I thought it pertinent fir&s;t to know what his thoughts were as to that.</P>
<P>He gave me occa&s;ion to engage him in the Subject; for turning towards the Garden, before we entered the Labyrinth; This Garden looks very well (&s;aid he) and the&s;e Statua's make a fair Show.
<PB N="43" REF="23"> The Cardinal (an&s;wered I) who cau&s;ed them to be brought hither, entertained a fancy that &s;uited ill with his great Parts. He thought that mo&s;t of tho&s;e Sta<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ua's rendered heretofore <HI>Oracles:</HI> and upon that he paid very dear for them. That is the infirmity of many People (re|plied the Count) Ignorance produces daily a kind of mo&s;t Criminal Idolatry; &s;eeing with &s;o much care Men pre&s;erve and preciou&s;ly e&s;teem the Idols which they believe the Devil heretofore made u&s;e of to make him&s;elf be adored. Good God will it never be known in the World that from the beginning of all Ages thou ha&s;t made thine Enemies thy Foot-&s;tool; and that thou holde&s;t the Devils Pri&s;oners under Chains of Dark|ne&s;s? That blame-worthy curio&s;ity of making Collections of tho&s;e pretended Organs of the Devils, might become innocent, my Son, if Men would be per&s;waded, that Angels of Darkne&s;s were never &s;uffered to &s;peak in <HI>Ora|cles.</HI></P>
<P>I do not think (&s;aid I interrupting him) that this Doctrine would ea&s;ily pa&s;s a|mong&s;t the curious; but perhaps it
<PB N="44" REF="24"> might among the Wits. For it was late|ly decided in a Conference held pur|po&s;ely on that Subject, by the Wits of the fir&s;t rank, that all the pretended <HI>Ora|cles</HI> were but Tricks of the covetous Heatheni&s;h Prie&s;ts, or an Artifice of the State-Policy of Princes.</P>
<P>Was it (&s;aid the Count) the <HI>Maho|metans</HI> that were &s;ent in Emba&s;&s;y to your King, who held that Conference; and &s;o decided that Que&s;tion? No, Sir (an&s;wered I.) What Religion were tho&s;e Gentlemen of then (replied he) &s;eeing they make no account of Sacred Scrip|ture, which in &s;o many places makes mention of &s;o many different <HI>Oracles?</HI> and e&s;pecially of the <HI>Pythons,</HI> who had their Re&s;idence, and rendered their Re&s;pon&s;es in the parts appointed for the multiplication of the Image of God? I &s;pake (an&s;wered I) of all tho&s;e Belly|talkers, and I in&s;tanced to the Compa|ny that King <HI>Saul</HI> bani&s;hed them his Kingdom, where neverthele&s;s he &s;till found one the night before he died; who&s;e Voice had the wonderful power to rai&s;e <HI>Samuel</HI> at his de&s;ire, and for his Ruin. But the&s;e Learned Men, for all
<PB N="45" REF="24"> that, denied ab&s;olutely that there were ever any <HI>Oracles.</HI></P>
<P>If Scripture had no influence upon them (&s;aid the Count) they &s;hould have been convinced by all Antiquity; wherein it was ea&s;ie to have &s;hew'd them a thou&s;and miraculous in&s;tances. So many Virgins with-child of the de|&s;tiny of Mortals, who were delivered of the good or bad hap of tho&s;e that con&s;ulted them. Why don't ye alledge <HI>Chry&s;o&s;tom, Origen,</HI> and <HI>Oecumenius?</HI> who make mention of tho&s;e Divine Men, whom the <HI>Greeks</HI> called <HI>Enga&s;trimandres,</HI> who&s;e Prophetick Bellies articulated &s;o famous <HI>Oracles.</HI> And if your Blades care neither for the Scripture nor the Fathers, they are to be convinced by tho&s;e miraculous Maids, who trans|formed them&s;elves into Doves, and under that &s;hape rendered the famous <HI>Oracles</HI> of <HI>Dodo<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">a's Doves.</HI> Or you may &s;ay, to the Glory of your Nation, that <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">here have been heretofore in <HI>Gallia,</HI> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">llu&s;trious Maids, who metamorpho&s;ed <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">hem&s;elves into all Figures, at the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">lea&s;ure of tho&s;e who con&s;ulted them; <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">nd who be&s;ides the famous <HI>Oracles</HI>
<PB N="46" REF="25"> which they rendered, had a wonderful Empire over the Floods, and a &s;alu|tary Authority over the mo&s;t Incura|ble Di&s;ea&s;es.</P>
<P>They would have termed all the&s;e fair proofs Apocryphal (&s;aid I.) What, does Antiquity render them &s;u&s;pected? (replied he) you might then have al|ledged to them the <HI>Oracles</HI> which are daily rendered. And where in all the World? (&s;aid I.) At <HI>Paris</HI> (an&s;wered h e.) At <HI>Paris!</HI> (cried I.) Yes at <HI>Paris</HI> (con|tinued he.) Are you a Ma&s;ter in <HI>I&s;rael</HI> and know not that? Do not Men daily con&s;ult <HI>Aquatick Oracles</HI> in Water-gla&s;|&s;es or Ba&s;ins; and <HI>Aereal Oracles</HI> in Looking-gla&s;&s;es, and on the Hands of Virgins? Are not lo&s;t Beads and &s;tollen Watches thus recovered? Do not they likewi&s;e hear News from di|&s;tant Countreys, and &s;ee ab&s;ent Friends? Alas! Sir, Why do you tell me of tho&s;e things (&s;aid I.) I tell you (replied he) what I am &s;ure happens daily, and which might be ea&s;ily proved by a thou|&s;and Eye-witne&s;&s;es. I don't believe that Sir (&s;aid I) the Magi&s;trates would make an Example of &s;uch an Action
<PB N="47" REF="25"> and would not &s;uffer Idolatry..... How quick you are! (&s;aid the Count in|terrupting me.) There is not &s;o much hurt in that, as you imagine; and Pro|vidence will never permit that Rem|nant of Philo&s;ophy, which hath e&s;caped the lamentable Shipwrack that Truth hath made, to be extirpated. If there &s;till remain among the People &s;ome foot|&s;tep of the dreadful power of Divine Names, are you of the opinion that it &s;hould be extirpated? And that Men &s;hould lo&s;e the re&s;pect and veneration which is due to the great Name <HI>AGLA,</HI> that worketh all the&s;e Wonders, even when it is invoked by the Ignorant and Sinners; and which would produce Wonders of another Nature in a Caba|li&s;tick Mouth? If you would have con|vinced tho&s;e Gentlemen of the truth of <HI>Oracles;</HI> you needed but to have exalted your Imagination and Faith, and turn|ing towards the Ea&s;t, cried with a loud voice <HI>AG.....</HI> Hold, good Sir (&s;aid I) I would have been very loath to have made &s;uch a kind of Argument to &s;o worthy Gentlemen as I was with; they would have taken me for a Phanatick:
<PB N="48" REF="26"> for a&s;&s;uredly they believe not a word of all that: and though I had known the Cabali&s;tick Operation you &s;peak of, it would not have &s;ucceeded in my Mouth; for I have le&s;s Faith than they. Well, well (&s;aid the Count) if you have none, we &s;hall procure you &s;ome. How|ever, if you thought that your Gentle|men would not have believed what they may daily &s;ee at <HI>Paris,</HI> you might have cited to them a &s;tory of very fre&s;h date: The <HI>Oracle</HI> which <HI>Celius Rhodiginus</HI> &s;ays him&s;elf &s;aw, about the end of the la&s;t Age, rendered by that extraordinary Man, who &s;poke; and fore-told things to come by the &s;ame Organ as <HI>Eurycles</HI> in <HI>Plutarch</HI> did. I would not cite <HI>Rhodiginus</HI> (an&s;wered I) it would have been a Pedantick Quo|tation, and be&s;ides, they would not have failed to have told me that that Man was po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed.</P>
<P>That would have been &s;aid mo&s;t Monki&s;hly (replied he.) Sir (&s;aid I, in|terrupting him) for all the Cabali&s;tick Aver&s;ion which I perceive you have to Monks, I cannot but be on their &s;ide in this particular. I think it may be
<PB N="49" REF="26"> more &s;af<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ly denied that ever there was any <HI>Oracle,</HI> than to deny that the De|vil &s;poke in them: For in fine, the Fa|thers and Divines.... For in fine (&s;aid he, interrupting me&punc;) do not Divines agree that the Learned <HI>Sambethe</HI> the olde&s;t of the <HI>S<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">byles</HI> was the Daughter of <HI>Noah?</HI> Puh! what of all that (re|plied I.) Does not <HI>Plutarch</HI> (an&s;wered he) &s;ay that the mo&s;t Ancient <HI>Sybill</HI> was the fir&s;t that rendered <HI>Oracles</HI> at <HI>Delphos?</HI> That Spirit which <HI>Sambethe</HI> lodged in her Brea&s;t was not then at Devil, nor her <HI>Apollo</HI> a fal&s;e god; &s;eeing Idolatry did not begin till long after the Divi&s;ion of Tongues: and it would be very unlikely to attribute the Sacred Books of the <HI>Sybills,</HI> and all the Proofs of the True Religion, which the Fathers have drawn from them, to the Father of Lies: And then my Child, (continued he &s;miling) it is not your part, to di&s;&s;olve the Marriage which a great Cardinal made betwixt <HI>David</HI> and <HI>Sybllia;</HI> nor to accu&s;e that Learned Man of having unequally yoked a great Prophet and an accur&s;ed Sorcere&s;s to|gether. For either <HI>David</HI> confirms the
<PB N="50" REF="27"> Evidence of the <HI>Sybill,</HI> or the <HI>Sybill</HI> weakens the Authority of <HI>David.</HI> I pray you Sir (&s;aid I, interrupting him) to the point again and be &s;erious.</P>
<P>With all my heart (&s;aid he) on con|dition you will not accu&s;e me of being too &s;erious. Is the Devil, in your opi|nion, ever divided again&s;t him&s;elf? And does he at any time act again&s;t his own Intere&s;ts? Why not (&s;aid I.) Why not? (&s;aid he) becau&s;e he whom <HI>Tertullian</HI> &s;o happily and magnificently calls the Rea&s;on of God, thinks it not proper. Satan is never divided again&s;t Satan. It follows then, That either the Devil never &s;poke in <HI>Oracles,</HI> or that he hath never &s;poke again&s;t his Intere&s;t. It fol|lows then, that if the <HI>Oracles</HI> have &s;poken again&s;t the intere&s;ts of the Devil, it was not the Devil that &s;pake in the <HI>Oracles.</HI> But could not God have forced the Devil (&s;aid I) to give te&s;timony to the Truth, and to &s;peak again&s;t him|&s;elf? But (replied he) if God hath not forced him. Ah! in that ca&s;e (&s;aid I) you'll have more rea&s;on than the Monks.</P>
<P>Let us &s;ee then, continued he, and
<PB N="51" REF="27"> that we may proceed invincibly and with &s;incerity; I will not adduce the te&s;timonies of the <HI>Oracles</HI> which the Fathers of the Church cite; though I be per&s;waded of the veneration which you have for the&s;e great Men. Their Religion and the Intere&s;t which they had in the Matter, might have prejudiced them, and their love to the truth might have &s;o prevailed with them, that per|ceiving it poor and naked in their Age, they might have borrowed &s;ome Clothing and Ornament for it from Fal&s;hood it &s;elf: They were Men, and by con&s;e|quence might, according to the Maxime of the Prophet of the Synagogue, have been unfaithful Witne&s;&s;es.</P>
<P>I will take then a Man, who cannot be &s;u&s;pected in this Cau&s;e: A <HI>Pagan,</HI> and a <HI>Pagan</HI> of another kind than <HI>La|cian,</HI> or the <HI>Epicureans;</HI> a <HI>Pagan</HI> infa|tuated (as he is) with Gods and Devils without number, beyond mea&s;ure &s;u|per&s;titious, a great Magician, or pre|tending &s;o to be; and by con&s;equence a great favourer of Devils, it is <HI>Por|phyrius.</HI> Here are &s;ome of the <HI>Oracles</HI> which he reports word for word.</P>
<FLOATEXT LANG="eng" TYPE="oracle">
<PB N="52" REF="28">
<HEAD>ORACLE.</HEAD>
<P>ABove the Cele&s;tial Fire there is an incorruptible, ever &s;parkling Flame, the Source of Life, the Fountain of all Stars, and the Principle of all Things. That Flame produces every thing, and nothing peri&s;hes but what it con&s;umes. It makes it &s;elf known by it &s;elf; this Fire can be con|tained in no place; it is without body and matter; it incompa&s;&s;es the Heavens, and from it comes forth a little Spark, which makes the Fire of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. This is what I know of God; inquire not after more, for it is above thy reach, how wi&s;e &s;oever thou may&s;t be. Know moreover, that an unju&s;t and wick|ed Man cannot be hid from God. Neither cunning nor excu&s;e can
<PB N="53" REF="28"> conceal any thing from his piercing Eyes. All is filled with God; God is every where.</P>
</FLOATEXT>
<P><HI>You well perceive (my Son) that this</HI> Oracle <HI>looks not too much like the De|vil. At lea&s;t (an&s;wered I) the Devil &s;teps a little out of his rode in it. Here is another (&s;aid he) which preaches &s;till better.</HI></P>
<FLOATEXT LANG="eng" TYPE="oracle">
<HEAD>ORACLE.</HEAD>
<P><HI>THere is in God an immen&s;e depth of Flame; yet the Heart of Man &s;hould not fear to touch that adorable Fire, nor to be touched by it; it &s;hall not be con&s;umed by that &s;o gentle Fire, the mild and peaceable heat where|of cau&s;es the Conjunction, Harmo|ny, and Duration of the World. No|thing &s;ub&s;i&s;ts but by this Fire, which is God him&s;elf. He is not begotten, he has no Mother, he knows all things, and can be taught
<PB N="54" REF="29"> nothing; he is immutable in his purpo&s;es, and his Name is ineffa|ble, this is God; for as for us, who are his Me&s;&s;engers, we are but a little particle of God.</HI></P>
</FLOATEXT>
<P>Well now! What &s;ay you to this? I &s;ay of both (an&s;wered I) that God can force the Father of Lies to give te&s;ti|mony to the Truth. Come here is a third (replied the Count) that will re|move your Scruple.</P>
<P><HI>ALas</HI> Tripodes! <HI>Weep, and make the Funeral Oration of your</HI> Apollo; <HI>he is mortal, he is going to die. He extingui&s;heth, becau&s;e the Light of the Coele&s;tial Flame makes him extinct.</HI></P>
<P>You well perceive (my Child) that whoever he be that &s;peaks in the&s;e <HI>O|racles,</HI> and who &s;o well explains to <HI>Pagans</HI> the E&s;&s;ence, Unity, Immmen|&s;ity, and Eternity of God; he confe&s;&s;es that he is Mortal, and that he is but a &s;park of God. It is not then the De|vil that &s;peaks, becau&s;e he is Immortal, and God would not force him to &s;ay that he is not &s;o. It is agreed that Sa|tan
<PB N="55" REF="29"> is not divided again&s;t himi&s;elf. Is that the way for him to be adored, to &s;ay, That there is but one God? He &s;ays that he is Mortal; how long is it &s;ince the Devil was &s;o humble as to &s;trip him&s;elf even of his Natural Quali|ties? You &s;ee then, my Son, that if the Principle of him, who by Excel|lence is called the God of Knowledge, hold Good; the Devil can never have &s;poken in the <HI>Oracles.</HI></P>
<P>But if it be not the Devil (&s;aid I) either in a frollick tell<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ng a Lie, when he calls him&s;elf Mortal; or &s;peaking the Truth by force, when he &s;peaks of God; to what then will your <HI>Cabal</HI> a&s;cribe all the <HI>Oracles,</HI> which ye main|tain to have been really delivered? Is it to an exhalation of the Earth, as <HI>Ari&s;totle, Cicero,</HI> and <HI>Plutarch</HI> affirm? Not &s;o my Child, (&s;aid the Count) t anks to the Sacred <HI>Cabal,</HI> I'me not &s;o far out of my Wits yet. <HI>How!</HI> (replied I) <HI>hold you that then to be a Fanta&s;tical O|pinion? It is maintained though by men of good &s;en&s;e.</HI> They are not &s;o in this point, my Son <HI>(continued he)</HI> and it is impo&s;&s;ible that all that hath been done
<PB N="56" REF="30"> in Oracles, can be attributed to Exha|lation: For Example, That Man, in <HI>Tacitus,</HI> who in a Dream appeared to the Prie&s;ts of a Temple of <HI>Hercules</HI> in <HI>Armenia,</HI> and commanded them to pro|vide Dogs and Hor&s;es to go a Hunting. Thus far it might have been Exhalati|on; but when at Night tho&s;e Dogs and Hor&s;es returned almo&s;t &s;pent, and the Quivers empty of Arrows, and that next day there were as many Bea&s;ts found dead in the Forre&s;t, as there were Arrows in the Quivers; this you &s;ee could not be Exhalation. And far le&s;s it was the Devil; for it would be a very unrea&s;onable and un|cabali&s;tick Notion of the Mi&s;ery of the Enemy of God, to think that he is permitted to take his plea&s;ure in Hunt|ing the Hind or Hare.</P>
<P><HI>To what does the &s;acred Cabal then</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>attribute the matter? Hold a little</HI> (an&s;wered he) <HI>before I di&s;cover to you that My&s;tery, I mu&s;t di&s;po&s;&s;e&s;s you of a prejudice that you may entertain as to that pretended Exhalation; for it ap|pears to me that you emphatically cited</HI> Ari&s;totle, Plutarch, <HI>and</HI> Cicero. <HI>You
<PB N="57" REF="30"> may likewi&s;e cite</HI> Jamblichus, <HI>wh<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">f<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">r all he was a Man of &s;o great parts, was &s;ometime in that Error; which he quickly for&s;ook, when he had examined the Matter more narrowly in the Book of My|steries.</HI></P>
<P>Peter <HI>of</HI> Apoua, Pomponatius, Levi|nius, Sirenius, <HI>and</HI> Lucilio Vanino, <HI>are over-joyed in finding that eva&s;ion among&s;t &s;ome of the Ancients. All the&s;e pretend|ed Wits, who &s;peaking of Divine Mat|ters, &s;ay rather what they de&s;ire, than what they know; will allow nothing &s;uper|natural in Oracles, lest they &s;hould be forced to acknowledge &s;omewhat above man. They are afraid we &s;hould lead them up, as by a</HI> Jacob's Ladder, <HI>to G<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">d, whom they fear to know by the &s;t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ps and degrees of &s;piritual creatures; but had ra|ther make them&s;elves one, to de&s;cend by into the Aby&s;s of Nothing; in&s;tead of lift|ing them&s;elves up to heaven, they dig down into the earth; and in&s;tead of &s;earching in the beings, that are &s;uperiour to man, the cau&s;e of th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;e tran&s;ports, that rai&s;e him above him&s;elf, and render him a kind of D<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ity: they weakly a&s;cribe to feeble Exhalations that vertue of penetrating in|to
<PB N="58" REF="31"> the future, of di&s;covering hidden things, and of &s;oaring up to the highest &s;ecrets of the Divine E&s;&s;ence.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Such is the mi&s;ery of Man, when he is po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed with a &s;pirit of contradiction, and an humour of thinking otherwi&s;e than other men do! He is &s;o far from attaining his ends, that he intangles and fetters him|&s;elf. The&s;e Libertines will not &s;ubject Man to &s;ub&s;tances le&s;s material than him&s;elf, and yet &s;ubject him to an Exhalation: and never con&s;idering that there is no A|nalogy betwixt that Chimerical &s;team and the &s;oul of Man; betwixt that vapor and things future; betwixt that frsvolous cau&s;e and tho&s;e miraeulous Effects: It is enough for them to be &s;ingular, to make them think them&s;elves rea&s;onable; and to deny &s;pirits, that they may &s;et up for men of &s;pirit and wit.</HI></P>
<P><HI>You are much offended at &s;ingularity then, Sir?</HI> (&s;aid I, interrupting him.) Ah! my Son <HI>(an&s;wered he)</HI> it is the Plague of a good Judgment; and the &s;tumbling-block of the greate&s;t Wits. <HI>Ari&s;totle,</HI> for all he was &s;o great a Logician, could not avoid the &s;nare, into which a conceit of &s;ingularity
<PB N="59" REF="31"> leads tho&s;e who are &s;o violently acted by it as he was: He could not <HI>(I &s;ay)</HI> avoid tripping and puzzling him&s;elf in his rea&s;onings. In his Book of the Ge|neration of Animals, and in his <HI>Ethicks,</HI> he &s;ays, <HI>That the &s;pirit and mind of Man comes to him from without, and that it is not tran&s;mitted from Father to Son; and from the &s;pirituality of the operations of our Soul; he concludes it to be of an|other Nature than the Material Body which it in&s;pires, the gro&s;sno&s;s whereof does but offu&s;cate Speculations, far from producing them.</HI> Blind <HI>Ari&s;totle,</HI> &s;eeing according to your opinion our material part cannot be the &s;ource of our &s;piri|tual thoughts, how do you fancy that a weak Exhalation can be the Fountain of &s;ublime Speculations, and of the high Flight of the Pythians, who ren|der Oracles. You well perceive <HI>(my Child)</HI> how that great Wit trips, and that his &s;ingularity makes him lo&s;e him&s;elf. <HI>You rea&s;on very exactly, Sir,</HI> (&s;aid I, ravi&s;hed to find that he &s;poke in effect to very good purpo&s;e; and ho|ping that his folly might not prove in|curable) <HI>God grant that.....</HI></P>
<PB N="60" REF="32">
<P><HI>Plutarch</HI> an Author otherwi&s;e &s;o &s;o|lid <HI>(continued hc, interrupting me)</HI> is to be pitied in his Dialogue, Why the O|racles have cea&s;ed. He makes to him|&s;elf convincing Objections, which he does not &s;olve. Why does not he then an&s;wer what is objected to him; that if it be an Exhalation which occa&s;ions that tran&s;port, then all that approach the Prophetick <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">tool, &s;hould be &s;ei&s;ed with Enthu&s;ia&s;me, and not a &s;ingle Maid, who mu&s;t be al&s;o a Virgin. But how can that Vapour articulate a Voice in the Belly. Moreover that Exhala|tion is a natural and nece&s;&s;ary Agent, and ought always to produce regularly the &s;ame Effect? Why is that Maid then never in&s;pired, but when &s;he is con|&s;ulted? And what is more urging, why has the Earth left off to &s;end out &s;uch Divine Vapours? Is it le&s;s Earth than it was? Does it receive other Influen|ces? Are there other <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">eas and other Rivers? Who has then &s;topped the Pores, or changed the Nature there|of?</P>
<PB N="61" REF="32">
<P>I wonder that <HI>Pomponatius, Lucilius,</HI> and the re&s;t of the Libertines, &s;hould have followed the Notion of <HI>Plutarch,</HI> and yet abandoned the way he takes to explain him&s;elf. He &s;poke more judiciou&s;ly than <HI>Cicero</HI> and <HI>Ari&s;totle,</HI> for he was a man indeed of good judgement, and not knowing what to make of all tho&s;e Oracles, after a long and tedious uncertainty, he at length fixed upon this, <HI>That that Ex|halation which he believed came out of the Earth, was a mo&s;t Divine Spirit,</HI> So that he a&s;cribed to the <HI>Deity tho&s;e extraordinary agitations and Prophetick Raptures of the Prie&s;ts of Apollo. That Divining Vapour</HI> (&s;aid he) <HI>is a Breath, and a mo&s;t holy and divine Spirit. Pom|ponatius, Lucilius,</HI> and the Modern A|thei&s;ts, like not tho&s;e wayes of &s;peak|ing which &s;uppo&s;e a Deity. <HI>The&s;e Exhalations</HI> (&s;ay they) <HI>were of the nature of tho&s;e Vapours which infe&s;t Melancholick People, who &s;peak Lan|guages which they under&s;tand not.</HI> But <HI>Fernelius</HI> confutes the&s;e impious men very well, by proving that Melan|choly, which is a peccant Humour,
<PB N="62" REF="33"> cannot occa&s;ion that variety of Tongues, which is one of the wonderfulle&s;t Ef|fects of Con&s;ideration, and an Artifici|al Expre&s;&s;ion of our Thoughts. He hath neverthele&s;s but imperfectly de|cided the Matter, when he &s;ub&s;cribes to <HI>P&s;ellus,</HI> and to all tho&s;e who have not been &s;ufficiently endowed with our holy Philo&s;ophy; for not knowing what cau&s;e to give for &s;uch &s;urprizing Ef|fects, like Women and Monks, he hath attributed them to the Devil. <HI>To whom are they then to be attributed?</HI> (&s;aid I.) <HI>I have long waited for that Ca|bali&s;tick Secret.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Plutarch</HI> him&s;elf hath very well ob|&s;erved it <HI>(&s;aid he)</HI> and he would have done well to have held to thar. That irregular way of Speaking by an un|&s;eemly Organ, being ba&s;e and unwor|thy of the Maje&s;ty of the Gods <HI>(&s;ays the Pagan)</HI> and what the Oracles &s;aid, &s;urpa&s;&s;ing likewi&s;e: the power of the Soul of Man; they have done great Service to Philo&s;ophy; who have pla|ced a kind of Mortal Creatures be|twixt the Gods and Man, to whom may be a&s;cribed all that &s;urpa&s;&s;es the
<PB N="63" REF="33"> weakne&s;s of Man, and comes not near the greatne&s;s of the Deities.</P>
<P>That is the Opinion of all the Anci|ent Philo&s;ophy. The <HI>Platoni&s;ts</HI> and <HI>Py|thagoreans</HI> learnt it from the <HI>Aegypti|ans,</HI> and tho&s;e from <HI>Jo&s;eph</HI> and the <HI>Hebrews,</HI> who dwelt in <HI>AEgypt</HI> before they pa&s;&s;ed the <HI>Red Sea.</HI> The <HI>Hebrews</HI> called tho&s;e Sub&s;tances which are be|tween Angels and Men, <HI>Sadaim;</HI> and the <HI>Greeks</HI> tran&s;po&s;ing the Syllables, and adding but one Letter, call them <HI>Dai|monas.</HI> The&s;e <HI>Demons</HI> among&s;t the An|cient Philo&s;ophers, are an Aereal Peo|ple, bearing rule over the Elements, mortal, generative, but unknown in this Age by tho&s;e who &s;earch little for Truth in its ancient Habitations; that is to &s;ay, in the <HI>Cabal</HI> and <HI>Theology</HI> of the <HI>Hebrews,</HI> who had the particular Art of Entertaining that Aereal Nation, and conver&s;ing with the Inhabitants of the Air.</P>
<P><HI>You are at your Sylphs again, I fancy, Sir,</HI> (&s;aid I interrupting him.) Yes, my Son <HI>(continued he)</HI> the <HI>Jewi&s;h Teraphim</HI> was onely the Ceremony that was to be ob&s;erved for that Commerce: and
<PB N="64" REF="34"> that Jew <HI>Micah,</HI> who in the Book of <HI>Judges</HI> complains that they had carried away his Gods, laments only the lo&s;s of the little Statue; wherein the Sylphs conver&s;ed with him. The Gods that <HI>Rachel</HI> &s;tole from her Father, were al&s;o a <HI>Teraphim&punc; Micah</HI> and <HI>Laban</HI> are not accu&s;ed of Idolatry, and <HI>Jacob</HI> 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 Syna|gogue held that Commerce to be law|ful, and that <HI>David</HI>'s Wife's Idol was only a <HI>Teraphim,</HI> by means whereof &s;he entertained a Corre&s;pondence with the Elementary People: for you may very well conceive, that the Prophet according to Gods own heart, would never have &s;uffered Idolatry in his Hou&s;e While&s;t for puni&s;hment of the fir&s;t &s;in, God &s;lighted the World, the&s;e Ele|mentary Nations took delight to ex|plain to Men in Oracles what they knew of God; to teach them to live morally; to give them mo&s;t wi&s;e and &s;ound Coun&s;els; &s;uch as are to be &s;een
<PB N="65" REF="34"> in great numbers in <HI>Plutarch</HI> and all the Hi&s;torians: But &s;o &s;oon as God took pity on the world, and would him&s;elf become its Teacher, the&s;e little Ma|&s;ters with-drew; and from thence came the &s;ilence of the Oracles.</P>
<P><HI>The re&s;ult of all your Di&s;cour&s;e Sir,</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>is that there have been certain|ly Oracles, and that they were rendered by Sylphs: who render them &s;till daily in Gla&s;&s;es or Mirors.</HI> Sylphs or Salaman|ders, Gnomes, or Undians <HI>(replied the Count.) If it be &s;o, Sir</HI> (an&s;wered I) <HI>all your Elementary People are an&punc; ill-bred Pack.</HI> And why? <HI>(&s;aid he.) Why</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>can there be greater cheating and jug|ling in the World, than tho&s;e Re&s;pon&s;es of double meaning which they alwayes gave.</HI> Alwayes <HI>(replied he.)</HI> Ha! not always. The Sylphide who appeared to that <HI>Ro|man</HI> in <HI>A&s;ia,</HI> and foretold him, <HI>That he &s;hould one day return thither with the Dignity of Pro-con&s;ul.</HI> Did &s;he &s;peak very ob&s;curely? And does not <HI>Tacitus</HI> &s;ay, <HI>That the thing happened as &s;he had fore-told?</HI> That In&s;cription and tho&s;e famous Statues in the Spani&s;h Hi&s;tory, which informed the Unfortunate King,
<PB N="66" REF="35"> <HI>Roderigo, That his curio&s;ity and inconti|nence &s;hould one day be puni&s;hed by me<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> cloathed and armed as they were; and that tho&s;e black men &s;hould invade</HI> Spain, <HI>and reign long in it.</HI> Could any thing be clearer than that, and did not the ef|fect ju&s;tifie the truth that very &s;ame year? Did not the Moors come and dethrone that Effeminate King? You know the Story, and you may ea&s;ily judge that the Devil, who &s;ince the Reign of the <HI>Me&s;&s;ias</HI> di&s;po&s;es not of Empires, could not be Author of that Oracle: And that it mu&s;t certainly have been &s;ome great Cabali&s;t, who learned it from one of the mo&s;t know|ing Salamanders. For &s;eeing the Sa|lamanders are great Lovers of Cha|&s;tity, they willingly acquaint us with the evils that are to befal the World for the want of that Vertue.</P>
<P><HI>But, Sir</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>do you think it a very chae&s;te thing, and becoming Cabali|&s;tick Mode&s;ty, to make u&s;e of that Hete|roclitous Organ by which they preached their Morality?</HI> Ah! for this once <HI>(&s;aid the Count laughing)</HI> I perceive you have the Imagination di&s;tempered, and you
<PB N="67" REF="35"> &s;ee not the Phy&s;ical rea&s;on why the inflamed Salamander delights natural|ly in the mo&s;t fiery hot places, and is attracted by...... <HI>I under&s;tand, I under&s;tand</HI> (&s;aid I, interrupting him) <HI>you need not take the pains to explain your &s;elf more fully.</HI></P>
<P>As to the Ob&s;curities of &s;ome Ora|cles <HI>(continued he &s;eriou&s;ly)</HI> which you call Juggling and Cheating, is not Darkne&s;s the u&s;ual Mantle of Truth? Does not God take plea&s;ure to hide him&s;elf under that Dusky Veil; and the Everla&s;ting Oracle which he hath left to his Children, I mean the Holy Scriptures; is it not wrapt up in an adorable Ob&s;curity; which confounds and mi&s;leads the proud, as its light guids the humble?</P>
<P>If that be all the &s;cruple you have, my Son, I would not advi&s;e you to de|lay your entering into Commerce with the Elementary People. You will find them very hone&s;t folks, knowing, be|nificent, and Fearers of God. It i<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">e my Opinion, that you &s;hould begi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> with the Salamanders; for in your Fi|gure you have <HI>Mars</HI> in the Mid-hea|ven,
<PB N="68" REF="36"> which imports that there is a great deal of Fire in all your actions. And as to Marriage, I would advi&s;e you to take a Sylphide; you'll live happier with her than with any of the others; for you have <HI>Jupiter</HI> on the Cu&s;p of your A&s;cendant, within a Sextile of <HI>Ve|nus.</HI> Now <HI>Jupiter</HI> rules over the Air and the People of the Air. However you mu&s;t con&s;ult your own heart a|bout the matter; for as you &s;hall one day know, a Sage is governed by the internal Planets, and the Planets of the external Heavens &s;erve only to make known to him more certainly the A|&s;pects of the Internal Heaven, which is in every Creature: So thar it lies at your Door now to tell me what your inclination is, to the end we may pro|ceed to your match with tho&s;e of the Elementary People whom you like be&s;t. <HI>Sir</HI> (an&s;wered I) <HI>that is an Affair, which in my opinion requires &s;ome little delibe|ration.</HI> I like you for that An&s;wer, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> <HI>&s;aid he, clapping his hand upon my <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> &s;houlder.)</HI> Con&s;ult deliberately about that great matter, e&s;pecially with him who by Excellence is called, <HI>The An|gel
<PB N="69" REF="36"> of the Great Council.</HI> Go, betake your &s;elf to Prayer, and to morrow about Two of the Clock after Noon, I will come and wait on <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ou.</P>
<P>We returned towards <HI>Paris,</HI> and up|on the Road I put him again upon the Di&s;cour&s;e again&s;t Athei&s;ts and Liber|tines: I never heard more &s;olid Rea&s;on|ing, nor better and more &s;ublime things &s;aid for the Exi&s;tence of a God, and a|gain&s;t the blindne&s;s of tho&s;e who &s;pend their lives without applying them&s;elves wholly to a &s;erious and continual wor|&s;hip of him, from whom we have our being, and who does pre&s;erve it. I wondred at the Character of the Man, and could not conceive, how at the &s;ame time he could be &s;trong and &s;o weak; &s;o admirable and &s;o ridicu|lous.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="conference">
<PB N="70" REF="37">
<HEAD>The Fourth Conference about Secret Sciences.</HEAD>
<P>I Stayed at home expecting the Count of <HI>Gabalis,</HI> as we had agreed at our parting. He came at the appointed hour, and acco&s;ting me with a &s;miling air; Well, my Son <HI>(&s;aid he)</HI> for which kind of the Invi&s;ible People hath God given you the greate&s;t Inclination, and what Alliance will plea&s;e you be&s;t, whether of the Salamanders, Gnomides, Nymphs or Sylphides? <HI>I am not as yet fully re&s;olved about that match, Sir,</HI> (an|&s;wered I.) Who is in the fault then? <HI>(replied he.) To be free with you, Sir,</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>I cannot cure my imagination; it &s;till repre&s;ents to me tho&s;e pretended Gue&s;ts of the Elements as the Ta&s;&s;els of Devils.</HI> O Lord! <HI>(cried he)</HI> O God of Light, di&s;per&s;e the darkne&s;s which ig|norance and perver&s;e Education hath &s;pread over the &s;oul of this Elect; who, as you have made known to me, is de|&s;tined by you to &s;o great matters. And
<PB N="71" REF="37"> you, my Son, &s;hut not the Door a|gain&s;t the Truth, which would come and lodge with you, be teachable. But it is all one, I care not whether you be or not; for indeed it is injurious to Truth, to prepare its wayes. It can break thorow Doors of Iron, and enter where it plea&s;es, in &s;pight of all the re|&s;i&s;tance of Fal&s;hood. What can you have to object again&s;t it? Hath not God, d'ye think created in the Elements &s;uch Sub&s;tances as I have de&s;cribed?</P>
<P><HI>I have not examined</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>if there be any po&s;&s;ibility in the matter it &s;elf; If one &s;ingle Element can furni&s;h Blood, Fle&s;h, and Bones? If there can be a Temperature without Mixture, and Actions without Contrariety? But granting that God could do it, what &s;olid Argument is there that he hath done it?</HI></P>
<P>Will you be convinced of it pre&s;ently <HI>(replied he)</HI> without &s;o much a-do? I'll go call the Sylphs of <HI>Cardan,</HI> you &s;hall hear from their own mouths what they are, and what I have told you of them. <HI>No, not &s;o, Sir, if you plea&s;e</HI> (cried I briskly.) <HI>Wave, I adjure you, that kind of proof, until I be per&s;waded that tho&s;e Blades
<PB N="72" REF="38"> are no Enemies to God; for till then I'll die, &s;ooner than wrong my Con&s;cience by.....</HI></P>
<P>This, this is the ignorant and fal&s;e pi|ety of the&s;e unhappy Times <HI>(&s;aid the Count in Choller, interrupting me)</HI> Why then is not the greate&s;t of Anchorites blotted out of the Calendar of Saints? And why are not his Statues burnt? It is a wrong that his venerable A&s;hes are not raked up? And that they are not &s;cattered in the Air, as the A&s;hes of tho&s;e who are accu&s;ed of having had Commerce with Devils? Did he at|tempt to exorci&s;e the Sylphs? And hath he not treated them as Men? What can you &s;ay to that now <HI>Seigneur Scru|pulo&s;o,</HI> you and all your &s;illy Doctors? Was the Sylph who di&s;cour&s;ed to that Patriarch of his Nature, in your opi|nion the Ta&s;&s;el of a Devil; Did that incomparable Man con&s;ult with a Gob|lin about the Go&s;pel? And will you ac|cu&s;e him of having profaned the ado|rable My&s;teries, by di&s;cour&s;ing of them with a Spright the Enemy of God? <HI>A|thana&s;ius</HI> and St. <HI>Jerome</HI> then very ill de&s;erve the great name that is given
<PB N="73" REF="38"> them by the Learned; having wrote with &s;o much eloquence the Elogy of a Man who was &s;o courteous to Devils. If they took the Sylph for a Devil, they ought either to have &s;tifled the Adventure, or interpreted in a &s;piritual Sen&s;e that Sermon, or that &s;o pathe|tick Apo&s;trophie which the Anchorite, more credulous and zealous than you are, makes to the City of <HI>Alexan|dria:</HI> And if they thought that Sylph a Creature participant, as he a&s;&s;ures us, as well as we of Redemption; and if in their Opinion that Apparition was an extraordinary grace of God &s;hew'd to the Saint, who&s;e Life they wrote, are you rea&s;onable to pretend to more knowledge than <HI>Athana&s;ius</HI> and <HI>Jerome,</HI> and greater holine&s;s than Divine <HI>An|thony?</HI> What would you have &s;aid to that admirable man, had you been one of tho&s;e Ten thou&s;and Hermites, to whom he related the Conver&s;ation that he had with the Sylph? You, without doubt, wi&s;er and more inlightened than all tho&s;e Terre&s;trial Angels, would have told the Saint, <HI>That his whole Ad|venture was a meer Illu&s;ion;</HI> and you
<PB N="74" REF="39"> would have di&s;&s;waded his Di&s;ciple <HI>A|thana&s;ius</HI> from publi&s;hing to all the World a Story &s;o incon&s;i&s;tent with Re|ligion, Philo&s;ophy, and Common Sen&s;e. Is it not true what I &s;ay?</P>
<P><HI>It is true</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>that I would have been of the Opinion, either to have &s;aid nothing at all, or more of it. Athana&s;ius</HI> and St. <HI>Jerome (replied he)</HI> had no mind to &s;peak more of it; for they knew no more but that; and though they had known all, which could not be unle&s;s they were of our number; they would not have ra&s;hly divulged the Secrets of Wi&s;dom.</P>
<P>But why did not that Sylph (&s;aid I) propo&s;e to St. <HI>Anthony,</HI> what you pro|po&s;e to day to me? What <HI>(&s;aid the Count laughing)</HI> Matrimony? Ha, ha, that had been to good purpo&s;e indeed&punc; <HI>It is true</HI> (replied I) <HI>that in all appear|ance the good Man would not have em|braced the Match.</HI> No certainly <HI>(&s;ai<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> the Count)</HI> for it would have been a tempting of God to have married a<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> that Age, and to have asked Children of him. <HI>How</HI> (replied I) <HI>do you marry with Sylphs then, to have Children by them&punc;</HI>
<PB N="75" REF="39"> For what end el&s;e <HI>(&s;aid he)</HI> are Men e|ver allowed to marry, for another end? <HI>I did not think</HI> (replied I) <HI>that ye expected or pretended to any I&s;&s;ue; but that all ye did, was onely to immortalize Sylphs.</HI></P>
<P>Ha! You are in the wrong <HI>(continu|ed he)</HI> the Charity of Philo&s;ophers makes them propo&s;e for their end the Immor|tality of the Sylphides: but Nature m<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">kes them de&s;irous to &s;ee them fruit|ful. You &s;hall &s;ee, when you have a mind, tho&s;e Philo&s;ophical Families in the Air. Happy were the World, if it had none but &s;uch Families, and if there were no Children of Corruption in it. <HI>What do you call Children of Corruption, Sir?</HI> (&s;aid I, interrupting him.)</P>
<P>Such are <HI>(&s;aid he)</HI> my Son, &s;uch are all the Children who are born in the ordinary way; Children conceived by the Will of the Fle&s;h, not by the Will of God; Children of Wrath and Maledi|ction; in a word, Children of Men and Women. You have a mind to interrupt me; I know very well what you would &s;ay. Verily, my Son, you mu&s;t know, that it was never the Will of the Lord
<PB N="76" REF="40"> that Men and Women &s;hould have Chil|dren by the way they procreate. The De&s;ign of the all-wi&s;e Creator was much more Noble; he intended the World &s;hould have been peopled far o|therwi&s;e than it is, if wretched <HI>Adam</HI> had not &s;o gro&s;ly di&s;obeyed the Com|mand of God, Not to touch <HI>Eve;</HI> and if he had been &s;atisfied with all the other Fruits of the Garden of Plea&s;ure, with the Beauty of the Nymphs and Sylphides; the World would not have had the di&s;grace to be filled with Men, &s;o imperfect; that they may pa&s;s for Mon&s;ters, if compared with the Chil|dren of Philo&s;ophers.</P>
<P><HI>How, Sir</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>by what I perceive, you believe that the crime of</HI> Adam <HI>is &s;ome|what el&s;e than the eating of the Apple?</HI> What, my Son <HI>(replied the Count)</HI> are you of the number of tho&s;e that have the &s;implicity to under&s;tand the Story of the Apple literally? Ha! You mu&s;t know, that the Holy Tongue u&s;es tho&s;e innocent Metaphors, to keep us from conceiving Ob&s;cene Notions of an Acti|on which occa&s;ioned all the Mi&s;eries of Mankind. So, when <HI>Solomon</HI> &s;aid, <HI>I will
<PB N="77" REF="40"> a&s;cend the Palm tree, and gather the fruits thereof; he had another appetite than the eating, of Dates: that Tongue which is con|&s;ecrated by Angels, and u&s;ed by them in &s;inging Hymns to the Living God, hath no Terms to expre&s;s what it figuratively names, calling it an Apple or Date. But a Sage ea&s;ily explains tho&s;e cha&s;te Figures, when he perceives that the Mouth or Ta&s;te of</HI> Eve <HI>are not puni&s;hed, and that &s;he brings forth in pain: He knows that it is not the Ta&s;te that was in the fault: And di&s;covering what was the fir&s;t &s;in, by the care which the fir&s;t &s;inners had to cover &s;ome parts of their Bodies with Fig-tree Leaves, he concludes that it was not the will of God that Men &s;hould multiply by that ba&s;e way. O</HI> A|dam! <HI>you &s;hould have begotten none but men like your &s;elf, or none but Heroes and Giants.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Pray now! what expedient was there,</HI> (&s;aid I interrupting him) <HI>for one or other of tho&s;e mervellous Generations?</HI> To obey God <HI>(replied he)</HI> to touch none but Nymphs, Gnomes, Sylphides. or Sala|manders. So none but Heroes would have &s;prung from his Loins, and the Univer&s;e would have been peopled with
<PB N="78" REF="41"> a wonderful Race; filled with &s;trength and wi&s;dom. God was plea&s;ed to let us gue&s;s at the difference that would have been betwixt that innocent world and the &s;inful world which now we &s;ee, by &s;uffering now and then Children to be begotten after the manner that he has projected. <HI>There has been &s;ometimes then Sir</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>&s;ome of tho&s;e Children of the Elements? And a Doctor of the</HI> Sor|bonne, <HI>who cited to me t'other day St.</HI> Au|&s;tine, <HI>St.</HI> Jerome, <HI>and</HI> Gregory Nazian|zene, <HI>is mi&s;taken then, in believing that no fruit could &s;pring from the loves of tho&s;e &s;pirits for our women, or the commerce that men might have with certain Devils whom he called</HI> Hyphialtes.</P>
<P><HI>Lactantius</HI> rea&s;oned better <HI>(replied the Count)</HI> and &s;olid <HI>Thomas Aquinas</HI> hath learnedly decided, that tho&s;e copulati|ons might not onely be fruitful; but that the Children &s;o begotten, are of a far more generous and heroick nature than others. In effect, you &s;hall read when you plea&s;e the high feats of tho&s;e mighty and famous men, who as <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> &s;ays, were begotten in that manner; we have among&s;t us the Hi&s;tories of
<PB N="79" REF="41"> them in the Book of the Wars of the Lord, cited in the Twenty third Chap|ter of <HI>Numbers.</HI> However judge what a world it would be, if all its Inhabi|tants, for in&s;tance, re&s;embled <HI>Zoroa|&s;ter.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Zoroa&s;ter</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>who is reputed to be the Author of Necromancy?</HI> The very &s;ame <HI>(&s;aid the Count)</HI> of whom the ig|norant have wrote that calumny, he had the honour to be the Son of the Sa|lamander <HI>Oroma&s;is,</HI> and <HI>Vesta</HI> the Wife of <HI>Noah.</HI> He lived Twelve hundred years, the wi&s;e&s;t Monarch in the world, and then was by his Father <HI>Oro|ma&s;is</HI> tran&s;ported into the Region of Salamanders. I make no doubt <HI>(&s;aid I)</HI> but <HI>Zoroa&s;ter</HI> is with the Salamander <HI>Oroma&s;is</HI> in the Region of Fire: but I would be loath to put &s;uch an affront upon <HI>Noah,</HI> as you have done.</P>
<P>The affront is not &s;o great as you may imagine <HI>(replied the Count)</HI> all tho&s;e Patriarchs reckoned it a great honour to be the pre&s;umptive Fathers of the Children, which the Sons of God were willing to beget upon their Wives; but this is likewi&s;e a little too &s;trong for you.
<PB N="80" REF="42"> Let us return to <HI>Oroma&s;is;</HI> he was belo|ved of <HI>Ve&s;ta</HI> the Wife of <HI>Noah.</HI> That &s;ame <HI>Ve&s;ta</HI> after her death was the Tu|telary Genius of <HI>Rome,</HI> and the Sacred Fire which &s;he would have carefully kept by Virgins, was to the honour of her Gallant the Salamander. Be&s;ides <HI>Zoro|a&s;ter,</HI> they had al&s;o a Daughter of an excellent Beauty and extream Wi&s;dom; &s;he was that Divine <HI>Egeria</HI> from whom <HI>Numa Pompilius</HI> received all his Laws. She obliged <HI>Numa,</HI> whom &s;he loved, to build a Temple to her Mother <HI>Ve&s;ta,</HI> where the Sacred Fire was kept in ho|nour of her Father <HI>Oroma&s;is.</HI> This is the truth of the Fable which the Poets and Roman Hi&s;torians have related of that Nymph <HI>Egeria. William Postoll,</HI> the lea&s;t ignorant of all who have &s;tudied the Cabal in the Common Books, knew that <HI>Ve&s;ta</HI> was the Wife of <HI>Noah;</HI> but he was ignorant that <HI>Egeria</HI> was the Daughter of that <HI>Ve&s;ta;</HI> and not having read the &s;ecret Books of the Ancient Cabal, of which the Prince of <HI>Miran|dula</HI> bought a Copy at &s;o dear a rate; he believed that <HI>Egeria</HI> was only the good Genius of <HI>Noah</HI>'s Wife. We are
<PB N="81" REF="42"> informed by the&s;e Books that <HI>Egeria</HI> was conceived upon the Water, when <HI>Noah</HI> wandered upon the avenging Floods that deluged the Univer&s;e. Wo|men were then reduced to that little number which was &s;aved in the Caba|li&s;tick Ark, which that &s;econd Father of the World had built: This great Man groaning to &s;ee the dreadful puni&s;hment wherewith God cha&s;ti&s;ed the Crimes occa&s;ioned by the love that <HI>Adam</HI> had for his <HI>Eve;</HI> and perceiving that <HI>Adam</HI> had undone his po&s;terity, by preferring <HI>Eve</HI> to the Daughters of the Elements, and by denying her to Salamanders or Sylphs, who could ea&s;ily have gained her love. <HI>Noah</HI> (I &s;ay) growing wi&s;e, by the fatal example of <HI>Adam,</HI> con&s;ented that his Wife <HI>Ve&s;ta</HI> &s;hould yield to the Salamander <HI>Oroma&s;is,</HI> the Prince of fie|ry Sub&s;tances; and likewi&s;e per&s;waded his three Sons to give their three Wives to the Princes of the Three other Ele|ments. The Univer&s;e by this means was in a &s;hort time re-peopled with &s;o heroick, knowing, beautiful, and rare Men, that their Po&s;terity dazzeled with their Vertues took them for Deities.
<PB N="82" REF="43"> One of the Sons of <HI>Noah</HI> rejects the coun&s;el of his Father, and cannot re&s;i&s;t the Charms of his Wife, no more than <HI>Adam</HI> of his <HI>Eve:</HI> But as the Sin of <HI>A|dam</HI> blackned the &s;ouls of all his Off|&s;pring, &s;o the &s;mall complai&s;ance, that <HI>Cham</HI> had for the Sylphs, marked all his black Po&s;terity. Hence comes (as our Cabali&s;ts &s;ay) the horrible colour of the Mores, and all tho&s;e hideous People who are commanded to inhabit the Tor|rid Zone, as a Puni&s;hment of the Pro|phane Heat of their Father.</P>
<P><HI>The&s;e are indeed pretty odd Records, Sir,</HI> (&s;aid I, admiring the extravagancy of the Man) <HI>and your Cabal is of wonderful u&s;e for illu&s;trating Antiquity.</HI> Wonderfully <HI>(replied he gravely)</HI> and without it Scrip|ture, Hi&s;tory, Fables, and Nature, are ob&s;cure and unintelligible. For exam|ple, you believe that the injury which <HI>Cham</HI> did to his Father, was &s;uch as it appears by the Letter, verily it is a far different thing. <HI>Noah</HI> being come out of the Ark, and perceiving that his Wife <HI>Ve&s;ta</HI> grew fairer and fairer, by the commerce &s;he held with her Gallant <HI>Oro|ma&s;is,</HI> fell pa&s;&s;ionately in love with her
<PB N="83" REF="43"> again. <HI>Cham</HI> fearing that his Father was about to people the Earth with a Race as black as his Mores, watched his opportunity one day, when the good old Man was full of Wine, and without mercy cut off his &s;tones. You laugh?</P>
<P><HI>I laugh</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>at the indi&s;creet zeal of</HI> Cham. You &s;hould rather admire <HI>(re|plied the Count)</HI> the Civility of the Sala|mander <HI>Oroma&s;is,</HI> whom Jealou&s;ie hin|dred not to pity his Rivals Misfortune; he taught his &s;on <HI>Zoroa&s;ter,</HI> otherways called <HI>Japhet,</HI> the name of the Omni|potent God, which expre&s;&s;eth his eter|nal fecundity: <HI>Japhet,</HI> with his Brother <HI>Shem,</HI> marching backwards towards the Patriarch, pronounced &s;ix times by turns the dreadful Name of JABAMI|AH, and made the old Man whole a|gain. This Hi&s;tory, ill under&s;tood, made the Greeks &s;ay that the anciente&s;t of the Gods was gelt by one of his Sons: but the truth of the matter is as I have told you. From whence you may conclude that the morality of the people of the Fire is far more courteous than ours, yea even than of the people of the Air or Water; for the Jealou&s;ie of the&s;e is
<PB N="84" REF="44"> Cruel, as Divine <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> informs us in an adventure which he relates, and which was &s;een by all the Town of <HI>Stauffembergh.</HI> A Philo&s;opher, with whom a Nymph engaged in a Com|merce of Immortality, was &s;o di&s;ho|ne&s;t as to fall in love with a VVoman; as he was at Dinner with his new Mi|&s;tri&s;s and &s;ome Friends, they &s;aw in the Air one of the lovlie&s;t Thighs and Legs that could be imagined: The Invi&s;ible Lover was willing to &s;hew it to the Friends of her Di&s;loyal Servant, to the end they might judge how much he was in the wrong, to prefer a VVoman to her. After which, the inraged Nymph killed him on the &s;pot.</P>
<P><HI>Ha, ha! Sir</HI> (cried I) <HI>that is enough to put me out of conceit with &s;uch Mi&s;&s;es.</HI> I confe&s;s <HI>(replied he)</HI> their nicety is a little too violent; but if among&s;t our VVomen, &s;ome provoked Mi&s;&s;es have been known to di&s;patch their perjured Gallants, it is not to be wondred at if tho&s;e &s;o beautiful and faithful Sweet|hearts, be inraged when they find them&s;elves betrayed; and the rather be|cau&s;e they exact no more from Men, but
<PB N="85" REF="44"> that they would ab&s;tain from VVomen, who&s;e defects they cannot away with; and that they allow us to make love to as many of them&s;elves as we plea&s;e. They prefer the Intere&s;t and Immorta|lity of their Companions to their private fatisfaction; and are glad when the Sa|ges be&s;tow upon their Republick as many Children as they are able to be|get.</P>
<P><HI>But in fine, Sir</HI> (replied I) <HI>how comes it to pa&s;s that there are &s;o few in&s;tances of what you tell me?</HI> There are a great many, Child <HI>(continued he)</HI> but Men reflect not on them, or believe them not; or in a word explain them ami&s;s, for want of the knowledge of our Prin|ciples. They a&s;cribe to Devils, all that &s;hould be attributed to the peo|ple of the Elements. A little Gnome procures the love of the famous <HI>Mag|dalene</HI> of the Cro&s;s, Abbe&s;s of a Mona|&s;tery at <HI>Cordova</HI> in <HI>Spain;</HI> at twelve years of age &s;he began to render him happy, and they continued their Com|merce for the &s;pace of Thirty years. An ignorant Confe&s;&s;or per&s;wades <HI>Mag|dalene</HI> that her Gallant was a Goblin,
<PB N="86" REF="45"> and obliges her to beg Ab&s;olution from Pope <HI>Paul</HI> the Third. Neverthele&s;s it is impo&s;&s;ible that it could be a Devil; for all <HI>Europe</HI> knows, and <HI>Ca&s;&s;iodorus Re|nius</HI> hath left on Record to Po&s;terity, the Miracle that was daily done in fa|vour of that Holy Nun, which in ap|pearance would not have happened, if her commerce with the Gnome had been &s;o devilli&s;h as the Venerable Con|fe&s;&s;or imagined. That Doctor, if I mi&s;take not, would have boldly affirm|ed that the Sylph who immortalized him&s;elf with the young <HI>Gertrude,</HI> a Nun of the Mona&s;tery of <HI>Nazareth</HI> in the Dioce&s;s of <HI>Cologne,</HI> was &s;ome De|vil. <HI>Without doubt</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>and I think &s;o too.</HI> Ha! my Son <HI>(continued he laughing)</HI> the Devil is not unhappy then, in that he could entertain a Commerce of Gallantry with a Girl of Thirteen years of Age, and write to her the &s;weet Love-letters that were found in her Cabinet.</P>
<P>Believe, my Child, believe, that in the Region of Death the Devil hath &s;adder Imployments and more conform to the hatred which the God of Purity
<PB N="87" REF="45"> pur&s;ues him with: but thus men wilfully &s;hut their eyes. We find, for in&s;tance in <HI>Titus Livius,</HI> that <HI>Romulus</HI> was the Son of <HI>Mars;</HI> the Wits &s;ay, that it is a Fable: the Divines, that he was the Son of a Devil: the Drolls, that Ma|dam <HI>Sylvia</HI> lo&s;t her Gloves, and that &s;he would cover the &s;hame of it, by &s;ay|ing that they were &s;tollen from her by a God. We who know Nature, and who are called by God from that dark|ne&s;s to his mervellous light; we know, that that &s;ame pretended <HI>Mars</HI> was a Salamander, who taken with the young <HI>Sylvia,</HI> made her the Mother of great <HI>Romulus,</HI> the Hero, who having found|ed his &s;tately City, was by his Father carried away in a Flaming Chariot, as <HI>Zoroa&s;ter</HI> was by <HI>Oroma&s;is.</HI></P>
<P>Another Salamander was the Father of <HI>Servius Paulus; Titus Livius</HI> &s;ays it was the God of Fire, deceived by the re&s;emblance; and the ignorant have pa&s;t the &s;ame Judgment on him as on the Father of <HI>Romulus.</HI> The famous <HI>Her|cules,</HI> and the invincible <HI>Alexander,</HI> were the Sons of the greate&s;t of the Sylphs. The Hi&s;torians, ignorant of
<PB N="88" REF="46"> that, have &s;aid that <HI>Jup<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ter</HI> was their Father. They &s;aid true, for as you have been told, tho&s;e Sylphs, Nymphs, and Salamanders, being reckoned Deities, the Hi&s;torians, who believed them to be &s;o, called all that were begotten by them the Children of Gods.</P>
<P>Such were the Divine <HI>Plato,</HI> the more Divine <HI>Apollonius Thianeus, Her|cules, Achilles, Sarpedon, Pius Aeneas,</HI> and renowned <HI>Melchi&s;edeck;</HI> for do you know who was <HI>Melchi&s;edecks</HI> Father? <HI>No really Sir</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>for St.</HI> Paul <HI>knew it not.</HI> Nay &s;ay, that he would not tell <HI>(replied the Count)</HI> and that he was not permitted to reveal the Cabali&s;tick My|&s;teries; he well knew that the Father of <HI>Melchi&s;edeck</HI> was a Sylph, and that that King of <HI>Salem</HI> was conceived in the Ark by the wife of <HI>Shem.</HI> The man|ner of that High-Prie&s;ts &s;acrifi&s;ing, was the &s;ame, which his Cou&s;in <HI>Egeria</HI> taught King <HI>Numa,</HI> as well as the ado|ration of a Supream Deity without I|mage and Statue: by rea&s;on whereof the Romans &s;ometime after falling into Idolatry, burnt the Holy Books of <HI>Nu|ma,</HI> which were dictated by <HI>Egeria.</HI>
<PB N="89" REF="46"> The fir&s;t God of the Romans was the true God, they had true Sacrifice, they offered Bread and Wine to the Sove|reign Ma&s;ter of the World; but that was wholly perverted in &s;ucceeding Times; yet God, in acknowledgment of that Primitive Wor&s;hip, gave that City, which had owned his Sovereignty, the Empire of the Univer&s;e. The &s;ame Sa|crifice which <HI>Melchi&s;edeck........</HI></P>
<P><HI>I beg of you, Sir</HI> (&s;aid I, interrupting him) <HI>let us wave</HI> Melchi&s;edeck, <HI>the</HI> Sylph <HI>that begot him, his Cou&s;in</HI> Egeria, <HI>and the Sacrifice of Bread and Wine. The&s;e Arguments &s;eem to me a little remote; and you would much oblige me, to tell me news of a fre&s;her date; for I heard a Doctor &s;ay, who was asked what was become of that Satyre who appeared to St.</HI> Anthony, <HI>and whom you have called a Sylph; that all tho&s;e Blades are dead now. And indeed it may very well be, &s;ince you acknowledge them to be mortal; and that we hear no news of them.</HI></P>
<P>Now I pray God <HI>(replied the Count in a little heat)</HI> I pray God, who knows all things, that he would never know that unknowing man, who &s;o &s;otti&s;hly de|cides
<PB N="90" REF="47"> what he knows not. Confound him and all &s;uch Coxcombs. Which way hath he learnt that the Elements are de&s;ert, and that all tho&s;e mervellous people are annihilated? If he would have taken the pains to read a little Hi|&s;tory, and not like good Women, at|tribute to the Devil what-ever tran|&s;cends the Chimerical Theory which he hath framed to him&s;elf of Nature, he would have found in all Times and Pla|ces, &s;ufficient in&s;tances of what I have now told you.</P>
<P>What would your Doctor &s;ay to that Authentick Story which happened lately in <HI>Spain?</HI> A lovely Sylphide was belo|ved of a Spaniard, lived with him three years, had three fine Children to him, and then died. Will one &s;ay that it was a She-Devil? A learned An|&s;wer indeed! by what Philo&s;ophy can the Devil form to him&s;elf the Body of a Woman, conceive, bring forth, and give &s;uck? What proof is there in Scripture of that extravagant Power, which on this occa&s;ion your Divines are obliged to grant to the Devil? And what probable Rea&s;on can their weak
<PB N="91" REF="47"> Phy&s;icks furni&s;h them with. The Je&s;uit <HI>Delrio,</HI> a Man of Sincerity and Candor, faithfully relates &s;everal &s;uch Adven|tures, and without perplexing him&s;elf with Phy&s;ical Rea&s;ons, &s;lips his Neck out of the Collar, by &s;aying, That tho&s;e Sylphides were Devils: So true it is, That your greate&s;t Doctors know no more mo&s;t times than &s;illy Women! So true it is, That God loves to retire into his Cloudy Throne, and that con|den&s;ing the Darkne&s;s which incompa&s;&s;es his dreadful Maje&s;ty, he di&s;covers not his Verities, but to &s;uch as are of an humble heart. Learn from the Sages to give the Devils no power in Nature, &s;ince the fatal Stone hath &s;hut them up in the Bottomle&s;s Pit. Learn of Philo|&s;ophers alwayes to &s;earch for Natural Cau&s;es in all extraordinary Emergents; and when Natural Cau&s;es fail, make your recour&s;e to God and his holy Angels, but never to the Devils, who do no more but &s;uffer: otherwi&s;e you will many times bla&s;pheme before you are aware; and attribute to the Devil the mo&s;t mervellous VVorks of Na|ture.</P>
<PB N="92" REF="48">
<P>For Example, VVhen you are told that the Divine <HI>Apollonius Thianeus</HI> was conceived without the help of any Man, and that one of the highe&s;t Sa|lamanders de&s;cended to immortalize him&s;elf with his Mother; you'll &s;ay that that Salamander was a Devil, and you'll give the Devil the glory of the generation of one of the greate&s;t Men that ever &s;prung from our Philo&s;ophi|cal Marriage-Beds.</P>
<P><HI>But, Sir</HI> (&s;aid I, interrupting him) <HI>that &s;ame</HI> Apollonius <HI>is among&s;t us repu|ted to have been a great Sorcerer, and that is all the good that is &s;aid of him.</HI></P>
<P>There is <HI>(replied the Count)</HI> one of the &s;trange&s;t effects of Ignorance and perver&s;e Education; becau&s;e one has heard his Nur&s;e tell Tales of Sorcerers, what-ever comes to pa&s;s extraordinari|ly, mu&s;t have the Devil for Author. It is in vain for the greate&s;t Doctors to talk, we will never believe them, un|le&s;s they &s;ay as our Nur&s;es &s;ay. <HI>Apollo|nius</HI> is not begotten of a Man, he un|der&s;tands the Language of Birds, he is &s;een the &s;ame day in &s;everal places of the VVorld, he di&s;appears before the
<PB N="93" REF="48"> Emperor <HI>Domitian,</HI> who would have u&s;ed him ill: He rai&s;es a Maid by ver|tue of Onomancy: He &s;ays at <HI>Ephe&s;us</HI> in an A&s;&s;embly of all <HI>A&s;ia,</HI> that at the very in&s;tant the Tyrant is killed at <HI>Rome.</HI> That Man is to be tried, the Nur&s;e &s;ays he is a Sorcerer; St. <HI>Jerome</HI> and St. <HI>Ju|&s;tin</HI> Martyr, &s;ay he was only a great Philo&s;opher. <HI>Jerome, Ju&s;tin,</HI> and we Cabali&s;ts, &s;hall be Enthu&s;ia&s;ts, and the little VVoman &s;hall carry the day. Ha! Let the Ignorants peri&s;h in their Igno|rances; but for you, my Son, &s;ave your &s;elf from the Shipwrack.</P>
<P>VVhen you read that the Famous <HI>Merlin</HI> was born without the help of Man of a Nun, the Daughter of a King of <HI>Great Britain;</HI> and that he fore-told things future more clearly than <HI>Tyre&s;ia.</HI> Say not with the Vulgar, <HI>That he was the Son of an</HI> Incubus, &s;eeing there ne|ver was any; nor, <HI>That he prophe&s;ied by the Black Art,</HI> &s;eeing the Devil is the mo&s;t ignorant of all Creatures; accord|ing to the holy <HI>Cabal.</HI> Say with the Sa|ges, <HI>That the Briti&s;h Prince&s;s was com|forted in her Solitude by a Sylph, who took pity on her; that he made it his bu&s;ine&s;s to
<PB N="94" REF="49"> divert her: that he knew how to plea&s;e her, and that their Son</HI> Merlin <HI>was bred by the Sylph in all Sciences, and learned of him to do all the Mervels which are rela|ted in the Hi&s;tories of</HI> England.</P>
<P>Neither offer that Affront to the Counts of <HI>Cleves,</HI> to &s;ay, <HI>That the De|vil is their Fore-father,</HI> and entertain a better opinion of the Sylph, who as Hi&s;tory tells us, came to <HI>Cleves</HI> in a miraculous Ship drawn by a Swan, that was yoked to it with a Silver Chain. That Sylph having begot many Chil|dren upon the Heire&s;s of <HI>Cleves,</HI> de|parted one day at Noon in his Aereal Ship, in the &s;ight of all the people. Now what hurt hath he done your Doctors, that they &s;et him up for a Devil?</P>
<P>But will you have &s;o little regard to the honour of the Hou&s;e of <HI>Lu&s;ignan?</HI> and will you give your Counts of <HI>Poiti|ers</HI> a Diabolical Extraction? VVhat will you &s;ay of their famous Mother? <HI>I believe Sir</HI> (&s;aid I interrupting him) <HI>you are about to tell me Tales of</HI> Melu|&s;ina. Ha! <HI>(replied he)</HI> if you deny me the Hi&s;tory of <HI>Melu&s;ina,</HI> I give you over for lo&s;t: but if you deny it, we mu&s;t
<PB N="95" REF="49"> burn the Books of great <HI>Paracel&s;us,</HI> who <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">n five or &s;ix different places maintains that <HI>Melu&s;ina</HI> was a Nymph; and you mu&s;t give the lie to your Hi&s;torians, who &s;ay that &s;ince her death, or rather &s;ince &s;he vani&s;hed out of her Husbands <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ight, &s;he hath never failed (when&s;oever <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">her Off-&s;pring were threatned with any misfortune, or any King of <HI>France</HI> was to die by an extraordinary death) to appear in Mourning upon the great Tower of the Ca&s;tle of <HI>Lu&s;ignan</HI> which &s;he built. You would have a quarrel with all that are de&s;cended from that Nymph, or that are allied to that Hou&s;e, if you &s;hould ob&s;tinately maintain it was the Devil.</P>
<P><HI>Do ye think, Sir</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>that the&s;e Lords like be&s;t to be de&s;cended from Sylphs?</HI> They would without doubt like it be&s;t <HI>(repl ed he)</HI> if they knew what I tell you, and they would reckon tho&s;e extraordi|nary procreations to be a great honour. They would know, if they had a glimp&s;e of the Cabal, that that kind of gene|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ation being more &s;uitable to the way that God in the beginning intended men &s;hould be multiplied; the Children that
<PB N="96" REF="50"> &s;pring from it are happier, more valiant, wi&s;e, renowned, and more ble&s;&s;ed of God. Is it not more glorious for tho&s;e illu|&s;trious Men to be de&s;cended from &s;o perfect, wi&s;e, and powerful Creatures, than from &s;ome na&s;ty Goblin, or infa|mous <HI>A&s;modeus?</HI></P>
<P><HI>Sir</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>our Divines are far from &s;aying that the Devil is the Father of a<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> tho&s;e who come into the World, when it is not known who begot them. They ac|knowledge the Devil to be a Spirit, and that &s;o he cannot generate. Gregory o<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> Nice</HI> (replied the Count) &s;ays not &s;o, for he holds that the Devils multipli'd among them&s;elves, as Men do. <HI>We are not of his Opinion</HI> (an&s;wered I) <HI>but it comes to pa&s;s (&s;ay our Doctors.....)</HI> Ha! &s;ay not (&s;aid the Count interrupting me,) &s;ay not, what they &s;ay, el&s;e you'l<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> &s;peak as they do, a very foul and ob|&s;cene impertinency. What abominable &s;hift have they found there? It is &s;trang<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> how they have all unanimou&s;ly im|braced that Pollution, and placed lit|tle Goblins in ambu&s;cado, to make ad|vantage of the idle Brutality of &s;olitary Per&s;ons, and thereby to hatch tho&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">
<PB N="97" REF="50"> miraculous Men, who&s;e illu&s;trious me|mory they &s;tain by &s;o ba&s;e a Conception. <HI>Do they call that to play the Philo&s;ophers? <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">s it be&s;eeming the Maje&s;ty of God, to <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ay that he does &s;o far comply with the Devil, as to favour &s;uch abominations, to <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">rant them the Ble&s;&s;ing of Fruitfulne&s;s, <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">hich he hath denied to Saints, and to <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ward tho&s;e Impurities by ereating for <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters">ch embryo's of Iniquity, more Heroick Souls, than for tho&s;e who have been be|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">tten in the Cha&s;tity of a lawful Mar|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">age? Is it be-fitting Religion, to &s;ay as our Doctors do, that the Devil by that <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ete&s;table Ar<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ifice can make a Maid with|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">hild in her &s;leep without hurting her Vir|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">nity; which is as ab&s;urd as the Story that</HI> Thomas Aquinas <HI>(other-ways a very &s;olid <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">uthor, and who under&s;tood a little of the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">abal) forgot him&s;elf &s;o far, as to relate his &s;ixth</HI> Quodlibet, <HI>of a Maid lying <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ith her Father, to whom he makes the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ne accident happen, that befell the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">aughter of</HI> Jeremiah (<HI>as &s;ome heretical</HI> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">abins &s;ay) <HI>who make her to have con|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ived the great Cabali&s;t</HI> Ben Syrah, <HI>by <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">tring into the Bath after the Prophet, are &s;wear that that impertinency hath <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">n invented by &s;ome.....</HI></P>
<PB N="98" REF="51">
<P><HI>If I durst interrupt your Declamation, Sir,</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>I would confe&s;s that it were to be wi&s;hed that our Doctors had ima|gined &s;ome Solution, which might not have been &s;o offen&s;ive to cha&s;te Ears, &s;uch as yours; or el&s;e they &s;hould have ab&s;olutely denied the in&s;tances on which the question is grounded.</HI></P>
<P>An excellent expedient (<HI>replied the Count</HI>) fie, fie! to deny evident truths: put your &s;elf in the place of a Doctor with a Hood) and &s;uppo&s;e that the ble&s;&s;ed <HI>Danhuzerus</HI> came to you as to the Ora|cle of his Religion....</P>
<P><HI>As he was &s;aying &s;o, a Lackey came to acquaint me that a Young Lord was com|ing to &s;ee me.</HI> I will not be &s;een by him <HI>(&s;aid the Count) I beg your Pardon Sir</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>you well perceive by that Lord<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> Name that I cannot deny my &s;elf: take the pains then to go into that Clo&s;et.</HI> Tha<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> is needle&s;s (<HI>&s;aid he</HI>) I'll go make m<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> &s;elf invi&s;ible. <HI>Ha! Sir</HI> (cried I) <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> Devilry (if you plea&s;e) I like not je&s;ting with &s;uch edged Tools.</HI> Strange Igno|rance (<HI>&s;aid the Count laughing and &s;hrug|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters"> up his Shoulders</HI>) not to know tha<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">o become invi&s;ible, there is no more
<PB N="99" REF="51"> requi&s;ite but to put the contrary of the Light before ones &s;elf. <HI>With that he went into the Clo&s;et) and at the &s;ame time the Young Lord came into my Chamber: I beg his pardon if I talked not to him of my Adventure.</HI></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="conference">
<HEAD>The Fifth Conference about Secret Sciences.</HEAD>
<P><HI>THe great Lord being gone, as I came back from waiting on him out, I found the Count of</HI> Gabalis <HI>in my Cham|ber.</HI> It is great pity (<HI>&s;aid he</HI>) that the lofty Lord who has ju&s;t now been gone, &s;hall one day be one of the 72 Princes of the <HI>Sanhedrin</HI> of the New Law; for were it not for that, he would prove a great Subject for the Secret Cabal; he is a Man of a deep reach, a clear, va&s;t, &s;ublime, and daring Wit; there is the figure of <HI>Geomancy</HI> that I ca&s;t for him while ye were in Di&s;cour&s;e toge|ther. I never &s;aw more happy points,
<PB N="100" REF="52"> and which denoted &s;o noble a Soul; look to that<NOTE N="(a)" PLACE="marg">Terms of Geomancy,</NOTE> Mother, what magnanimity &s;he gives him. That<NOTE N="(b)" PLACE="marg">Terms of Geomancy,</NOTE> Daughter, &s;hall procure him the Purple. I am vexed at her, and Fortune too, becau&s;e they deprive Philo&s;ophy of a Subject that perhaps might &s;urpa&s;s you. But where were we when he came?</P>
<P><HI>You talked to me, Sir,</HI> (replied I) <HI>of a Saint that I never &s;aw in the Roman Calender, I think you called him</HI> Danhu|zerus: Ha! I remember (<HI>an&s;wered he</HI>) I bid you put your &s;elf in the place of one of your Doctors, and &s;uppo&s;e that the ble&s;&s;ed <HI>Danhuzerus</HI> came to open his Con&s;cience to you, and told you.</P>
<P>Sir, the fame of your knowledge hath brought me hither from beyond the <HI>Alpes;</HI> I have a little &s;cruple that pinches me. In a Mountain of <HI>Italy</HI> there is a Nymph keeps her Court; a thou&s;and Nymphs as lovely almo&s;t as her &s;elf, wait upon her. Many hand|&s;ome, learned, and civil Gentlemen, come thither from all parts of the habitable World; they love tho&s;e
<PB N="101" REF="52"> Nymphs, and are beloved of them; there they lead the &s;weete&s;t life imagi|nable; they beget mo&s;t lovely Children on tho&s;e 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 Moun|tain, I plea&s;ed the Nymph Queen, &s;he made her &s;elf vi&s;ible, and &s;hew'd me her charming Court. The <HI>Sages</HI> per|ceiving that &s;he loved me, re&s;pected me almo&s;t as their Prince; they ex|horted me to yield to the Sighs and Beauty of the Nymph; &s;he her &s;elf told me her Sufferings, and omitted nothing that might affect my Heart; and at length told me, that &s;he mu&s;t die if I would not love her: and that if I loved her, &s;he would be indebted to me for her Immortality. The Rea&s;onings of tho&s;e 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 mid&s;t of my Felicity, I am &s;ometimes troubled by calling to mind that the Church of <HI>Rome</HI> perhaps approves not too well of this. I came to you, Sir, to con&s;ult,
<PB N="102" REF="53"> what that Nymph is, tho&s;e Sages and Children, and in what &s;tate my Con|&s;cience is? There! Ma&s;ter Doctor what An&s;wer would you make to Lord <HI>Dan|huzerus?</HI></P>
<P><HI>I would tell him</HI> (an&s;wered I) <HI>with all the re&s;pect that I owe you,</HI> Seigneur Dan|huzerus <HI>you are a little phanatical; or el&s;e your Vi&s;ion is an Inchantment; your Children and Mi&s;tri&s;s are Hobgoblins; your Sages are Fools, and your Con&s;cience is &s;eared.</HI></P>
<P>With that an&s;wer (<HI>my Son</HI>) you may de&s;erve a Doctors Hood, but you'll never merit to be re<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="5 letters">d among&s;t us <HI>(replied the Count fetching a deep &s;igh)</HI> there is the barbarous Di&s;po&s;ition of all the Doctors now a days. A poor Sylph dares not &s;hew him&s;elf but he is imme|diately taken for a Goblin; a Nymph mu&s;t not endeavour Immortality un|le&s;s &s;he pa&s;s 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 com|po&s;ed, for the Fire of Hell that never leaves him. It is to much purpo&s;e for them, that they may di&s;pel tho&s;e in|jurious &s;u&s;pitions, to make the &s;ign of
<PB N="103" REF="53"> the Cro&s;s when they appear, bow the Knee at the Divine Names, yea, and pronounce them with reverence. The&s;e are vain cautions, they cannot obtain that Men would not repute them the Enemies of God, whom they more re|ligiou&s;ly adore than they that flee from them.</P>
<P><HI>In earne&s;t, Sir,</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>do you be|lieve the Sylphs to be very devote?</HI> Mo&s;t devote <HI>(an&s;wered he</HI>) and mo&s;t zea|lous for a Deity. The excellent Di&s;|cour&s;es they make us upon the Divine E&s;&s;ence, and their admirable Prayers edifie us exceedingly. <HI>Have they Prayers al&s;o</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>I would willingly have one of them?</HI> It is ea&s;ie to &s;atisfie you <HI>(re|plied he)</HI> and to the end I may not re|late one that may be &s;u&s;pected, or that you may imagine fra<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">'d by my &s;elf; li&s;ten to that which the <HI>Salaman|der,</HI> who gave re&s;pon&s;es in the Tem|ple of <HI>Delphos,</HI> taught the <HI>Pagans,</HI> and is related by <HI>Porphyrius;</HI> it contains &s;ublime Theology; and by it you'll &s;ee that it was no fault of tho&s;e wi&s;e Crea|tures, if the World adored not the true God.</P>
<FLOATEXT LANG="eng" TYPE="prayer">
<PB N="104" REF="54">
<HEAD>The Prayer of the <HI>Salamaders.</HI></HEAD>
<P><HI>IMmortal, Eternal, Ineffable and Holy Father of all Things, who ince&s;&s;antly art carried on the rolling chariot of ever-turning Worlds. Ruler of the Etherian Fields, where the Throne of thy Power is rai&s;ed; from the height whereof thy dreadful Eyes di&s;cover all, and thy Holy and Ble&s;&s;ed Ears hear every thing. Hear thy Children whom thou ha&s;t loved from the beginning of Ages; for thy Bright, thy Great and Eter|nal Maje&s;ty &s;hines over the World, and the Starry Heavens. O &s;park|ling Fire, thou art elevated above them; there thou inlightens and entertains thy &s;elf by thy own Brightne&s;s, and from thy being
<PB N="105" REF="54"> flow out continual &s;treams of Light which nouri&s;h thine infinite Spi|rit. That infinite Spirit produces all things, and makes that in|exhau&s;tible Trea&s;ure of Matter, which cannot be wanting to the Generation that always inviron it by rea&s;on of the innumerable Forms wherewith it is impreg|nated, and with which thou filled'&s;t it in the beginning. From that Spirit &s;pring al&s;o tho&s;e mo&s;t Holy Kings who &s;tand about thy Throne, and make up thy Court. O univer&s;al and onely Father! O Father of the ble&s;&s;ed Mortals and Immortals, thou ha&s;t in particu|lar created Powers, who are won|derfully like to thy Eternal Thought, and thine Adorable E&s;&s;ence. Thou ha&s;t placed them above the Angels, the Me&s;&s;engers of thy Will in the World. In fine thou ha&s;t created us a third kind of Soveraigns in the
<PB N="106" REF="55"> Elements: Our continual Exer|ci&s;e is to prai&s;e thee, and to a|dore thy Will and Plea&s;ure. We are inflamed with a de&s;ire of po&s;|&s;e&s;&s;ing thee. O Father, O Mother, the tendere&s;t of Mothers! O won|derful Example of the Feelings and Tenderne&s;s of Mothers! O Son, the Flower of all Sons! O Form of all Forms! Soul, Spirit, Harmony and Number of all Things.</HI></P>
</FLOATEXT>
<P>What &s;ay ye now to that Prayer of the <HI>Salamanders? Is it not very Learned, very Sublime and very Devote? And be&s;ides very Ob&s;cure too</HI> (an&s;wered I) <HI>I heard a Preacher paraphra&s;e upon it, who from thence proved that the Devil among&s;t his other Vices, is a notorious great Hypo|crite.</HI> Ho! (<HI>cried the Count</HI>) what re|medy have ye then poor Elementary People? ye &s;peak a&s;toni&s;hingly of the nature of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Gho&s;t, of a&s;&s;i&s;tent intelligences, of the Angels and Heavens. Ye make admirable Prayers, and teach them to
<PB N="107" REF="55"> Men; and when all is done, ye are but hypocritical Goblins!</P>
<P><HI>Sir</HI> (&s;aid I interrupting him) <HI>I like not at all the Apo&s;trophies you u&s;e to tho&s;e People.</HI> Well, well, my Son (<HI>replied he</HI>) be not afraid that I call them: but let not your weakne&s;s &s;o far work upon you at lea&s;t, as for the future to won|der that you &s;ee not &s;o many in&s;tances as you would of their Alliance with Men. Alas! Where is that Woman who&s;e imagination your Doctors have not &s;poiled, who reflects not on that commerce with Horrour, and who would not quake at the a&s;pect of a <HI>Sylph?</HI> Where is the Man that flies not from the &s;ight of them, if he incline a little to be good? Do we but very &s;eldom find an Hone&s;t Man that de&s;ires their Familiarity? And do any but the De|bauched, Covetous, Ambitious and Cheats, covet that Honour, which they &s;hall never have though <HI>(VIVE DIE&V;)</HI> becau&s;e the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wi&s;dom.</P>
<P><HI>What becomes then</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>of all tho&s;e People volant; &s;eeing Hone&s;t Men are now &s;o prejudiced again&s;t them?</HI> Ho! the Arm
<PB N="108" REF="56"> of God (<HI>&s;aid he</HI>) is not &s;hortned, and the Devil reaps not all the profit which he hoped from the Ignorance and Error that he hath &s;pread abroad to their prejudice; for be&s;ides that the Philo&s;ophers, who are numerous, re|medy it as much as they can, by whol|ly renouncing Women: God has per|mitted the&s;e People to u&s;e all the in|nocent Arts they can devi&s;e for conver|&s;ing with Men without their knowledge. <HI>What d'ye tell me, Sir</HI> (cried I) I tell you the truth (<HI>continued he</HI>) Do you believe that a Dog can have Children by a Woman? <HI>No</HI> (an&s;wered I) And an Ape (added he?) <HI>Neither</HI> (replied I.) And a Bear <HI>(continued he?) Neither Dog, Bear, nor Ape,</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>it is with|out doubt impo&s;&s;ible; it is contrary to Na|ture, Rea&s;on, and Common Sen&s;e.</HI> Good (<HI>&s;aid the Count</HI>) but are not the Kings of the <HI>Goths</HI> &s;prung from a Bear and a Swedi&s;h Prince&s;s? Hi&s;tory &s;ays &s;o. <HI>It is true</HI> (replied I) And the Pegu&s;ians and Syonians of the <HI>Indies (an&s;wered he)</HI> are they not begotten by a Dog upon a Woman? <HI>I have heard that al&s;o</HI> (&s;aid I.) And that Portugue&s;e Woman <HI>(con|tinued
<PB N="109" REF="56"> he)</HI> who being expo&s;ed on a de|&s;ert I&s;land, had Children by a great Baboon? <HI>Our Divines</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>an&s;wer to that Sir) that the Devil putting him|&s;elf into the &s;hape of tho&s;e Bea&s;ts....</HI> You are again about to alledge to me <HI>(&s;aid the Count interrupting me)</HI> the &s;ordid imaginations of your Authors. Under|&s;tand then once for all, that the Sylphs perceiving that they are taken for De|vils when they appear in Humane &s;hape, that they may le&s;&s;en the Aver&s;ion which People have to them; take the &s;hape of tho&s;e Animals, and &s;o accommodate them&s;elves to the whim&s;ical weakne&s;s of Women, who would have a lovely Sylph in Horrour, and are not &s;tartled at a Dog or Monkey. I could tell you many little &s;tories of the Ladies Lap-dogs, with &s;ome Virgins in the World; but that I have a greater Secret to im|part to you.</P>
<P>Know (my Son) that &s;uch an one believes him&s;elf to be the Son of a Man, who is the Son of a Sylph. Such a Man thinks he is with his Wife, who una|wares is immortali&s;ing a Nymph. A Wife thinks &s;he has her Husband in her
<PB N="110" REF="57"> Arms, who is imbracing a Salamander; and &s;uch a Maid would &s;wear when &s;he awakes that &s;he is a Virgin, who in her &s;leep hath had the honour &s;he dreamt not of. So the Devil and the Ignorant are equally abu&s;ed.</P>
<P><HI>How!</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>could not the Devil by awaking that &s;leeping Maid hinder the</HI> Sa|lamander <HI>from becoming immortal?</HI> He could <HI>(replied the Count)</HI> if the Sages took not a care of that; but we teach all tho&s;e People the way of binding the Devils, and of oppo&s;ing their Attempts. Did I not tell you t'other day that the <HI>Sylphs</HI> and other Elementary Lords are too happy that we are plea&s;ed to in|&s;truct them in the Cabal. Were it not for us the Devil their great Enemy would exceedingly di&s;turb them, and they would find it hard to immorta|lize them&s;elves without the privacy of Maids.</P>
<P><HI>I cannot &s;ufficiently admire</HI> (replied I) <HI>the profound ignorance, wherein we live; we believe that the Powers of the Air help the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">morous &s;ometimes to the accompli&s;h|ment of their de&s;ires. The matter is quite otherways then; for the powers of the Air
<PB N="111" REF="57"> want the a&s;&s;i&s;tance of Men in the pro&s;ecu|tion of their loves.</HI> You have hit it, my Son <HI>(continued the Count)</HI> the Sage brings &s;uccour to tho&s;e poor people, who without him are too wretched and weak to re&s;i&s;t the Devil; but truly when a Sylph hath learnt from us Ca|bali&s;tically to pronounce the powerful name <HI>NEHMAHMIAH,</HI> and to joyn it in form with the delicious name <HI>ELIAEL;</HI> all the powers of dark|ne&s;s betake them to their Heels, and the Sylphs peaceable injoys the beloved Object.</P>
<P>Thus was immortalized the ingenious Sylph, who took the &s;hape of the Lover of a Young Lady of <HI>Seville;</HI> its a known Hi&s;tory. The Young Spani&s;h Lady was Beautiful, but as cruel as fair. A Gen|tleman of <HI>Ca&s;tile,</HI> who loved her in vain, re&s;olved one morning to be gone without taking leave, and to travel until he were cured of his fruitle&s;s pa&s;&s;ion. A Sylph finding the fair one to his mind, thought it be&s;t to nick the time, and arming him&s;elf with the Directions that he had from one of us, to defend him&s;elf a|gain&s;t the Cro&s;&s;es, that the Devil, envi|ous
<PB N="112" REF="58"> of his happine&s;s might rai&s;e to him; he goes and vi&s;its the Lady under the di&s;gui&s;e of the ab&s;ent Lover; he com|plains, he &s;ighs, and is rejected. He urges, &s;olicites, and per&s;everes: After &s;ome months he wins upon her, gains her Love, per&s;wades her, and at length is made happy. Their Amours are fruit|ful by a Son, who was &s;ecretly born without the knowledge of the Parents, being concealed by the skill of the Aere|al Gallant. Their Love continues and is ble&s;&s;ed with a &s;econd Conception. In the mean time the Gentleman cured by ab&s;ence, returns to <HI>Seville,</HI> and being impatient to &s;ee his cruel Mi&s;tri&s;s, goes with all &s;peed to tell her, that now at length he is in a condition not to di&s;|plea&s;e her; and that he is come to ac|quaint her that he loves her no more.</P>
<P>Imagine but with your &s;elf the a&s;to|ni&s;hment of the Young Lady, her An|&s;wer, her Tears, Reproaches, and all their &s;urpri&s;ing Conference. She main|tains that &s;he hath yielded to his will; he denies it; that their Child is in &s;uch a place, that he is the Father of ano|ther in her Womb; he ob&s;tinately di&s;|owns
<PB N="113" REF="58"> all. She is comfortle&s;s, tears her Hair; the Parents come running at her cries; the de&s;perate Lover per&s;i&s;ts in her Complaints, and invectives; it is proved that the Gentleman was ab|&s;ent for two years; they &s;earch for the fir&s;t Child and find it, and the &s;econd was born at the time.</P>
<P><HI>And what part acted the Aereal Gallant</HI> (&s;aid I interrupting him) <HI>all this while?</HI> I well perceive <HI>(an&s;wered the Count)</HI> that you think, he did ill in abandon|ing his Mi&s;tri&s;s to the rigour of her Pa|rents, or the fury of the Inqui&s;ition: bu he had rea&s;on to complain of her, &s;he was not devote enough; for when the&s;e Gentlemen immortalize them|&s;elves, they labour &s;eriou&s;ly, and live with much &s;anctity, that they may not lo&s;e the right that they have acquired to the chief good. And &s;o they will have the per&s;on to whom they are al|lied, lead an exemplary Life; as is to be &s;een in the famous Adventure of a Young Lord of <HI>Bavaria.</HI></P>
<P>He was over-whelmed with grief for the lo&s;s of his Wife whom he pa&s;&s;ion|ately loved. A Sylphide was advi&s;ed by
<PB N="114" REF="59"> one of our Sages to take the &s;hape of that Woman; &s;he took his Coun&s;el, and went and pre&s;ented her &s;elf to the young Mourner, &s;aying, that God had rai&s;ed her again to comfort him in his extream affliction. They lived many years together, and had very lovely Children; but this young Lord was not &s;o good a man as to retain the wi&s;e Sylphide, he &s;wore and talked Baudy. She often admoni&s;hed him; but finding that her Admonitions were in vain, one day &s;he evani&s;hed, leaving him onely her Coats, and &s;orrow that he had not followed her holy Coun&s;els. So that you &s;ee, my Son, that the Sylphs have rea|&s;on &s;ometimes to di&s;appear; and you perceive that the Devil cannot hinder, no more than the Capricious Whim|&s;ies of your Divines, but that the Peo|ple of the Elements &s;ucce&s;sfully endea|vour their immortality when they are a&s;&s;i&s;ted by &s;ome one or other of our Sages.</P>
<P><HI>But really and in good truth, Sir</HI> (re|plied I) <HI>are you per&s;waded that the De|vil is &s;o great an Enemy to tho&s;e De|bauchers of Young Maids?</HI> A mortal Ene|my
<PB N="115" REF="59"> <HI>(&s;aid the Count)</HI> and e&s;pecially to the Nymphs, Sylphs, and Salamanders. For as for the Gnomes, he does not hate them &s;o much, for, as I think I told you, the&s;e Gnomes terrified at the houling of the Devils which they hear in the Center of the Earth, chu&s;e ra|ther to continue mortal than to run the risk of being &s;o tormented, if they acquired immortality. Hence it is that the Gnomes have pretty good Com|merce with their Neighbours the Devils. The&s;e per&s;wade the Gnomes, naturally very kind to men, that it is great &s;er|vice done to men, and a deliverance from a great danger, to oblige them to renounce their immortality; for that end they ingage to furni&s;h him, whom they can per&s;wade to that renunciati|on, with as much money as he &s;hall plea&s;e to ask, to avert the dangers that may threaten his Life during a certain &s;pace of time, or what other condition; whicn he who makes that accur&s;ed com|pact &s;hall plea&s;e: &s;o the Devil, wicked Rogue as he is, by the meditaion of that Gnome, makes the Soul of that Man become mortal, and deprives it of a right to Life eternal.</P>
<PB N="116" REF="60">
<P><HI>How, Sir</HI> (cried I) <HI>are not the&s;e Com|pacts whereof Demonographers relate &s;o ma|ny examples, in your opinion then, made with the Devil?</HI> No &s;ure <HI>(replied the Count)</HI> hath not the Prince of the World been ca&s;t out? Is not he &s;hut up? Is not he bound? Is he not the <HI>Caput Mortuum,</HI> and <HI>terra damnata,</HI> which hath &s;unk to the bottom of the operation of the Su|pream and Architypical Stagyri&s;t? Can <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">e a&s;cend unto the Region of Light, and &s;pread his concentrated darkne&s;s there? He can do nothing again&s;t Man. He can onely in&s;pire into the Gnomes his Neighbours, to come and make &s;uch Propo&s;itions to tho&s;e whom he fears mo&s;t will be &s;aved; to the end their Soul may die with their Body.</P>
<P><HI>According to your Doctrine then</HI> (added I) <HI>the&s;e Souls die?</HI> They die, Child (an|&s;wered he) becau&s;e their Soul dies with the Body. <HI>They come off on very ea&s;ie terms then</HI> (replied I) <HI>and are very lightly puni&s;hed for &s;o enormous a Crime as the renouncing of their Bapti&s;m, and the death of their Saviour.</HI></P>
<P>Call you that <HI>(&s;aid the Count)</HI> a &s;light puni&s;hment to enter into the dark Aby&s;s
<PB N="117" REF="60"> of Nothing? Know that this is a great|er puni&s;hment than to be damned; that there remains &s;ome mercy &s;till in the Ju|&s;tice which God exerci&s;es again&s;t the &s;inners in Hell; and that is great favour that they are not con&s;umed by the Fire that burns them. Non-entity is a great|er evil than Hell; and that is it which the Sages preach to the Gnomes, when they call them together to make known to them the wrong they do in prefer|ring Death to Immortality, and the A|by&s;s of Nothing to the hope of a Ble&s;&s;ed Eternity, which they might have a right to po&s;&s;e&s;s, if they would ally them&s;elves to Men, without exacting from them tho&s;e Criminal Renunciati|ons. Some of them believe us, and we marry them to our Daughters.</P>
<P><HI>Ye preach a Go&s;pel then to the Subter|ranean people, Sir</HI> (&s;aid I.) Why not <HI>(replied he)</HI> we are their Doctors, as well as of the people of the Fire, Air, and Water, and Philo&s;ophical Charity is indifferently diffu&s;ed on all tho&s;e Chil|dren of God, as they are more &s;ubtile, and more knowing than the ordinary &s;ort of Men; &s;o are they more docile
<PB N="118" REF="61"> and capable of In&s;truction; and they li|&s;ten to Divine Truths with a re&s;pect that ravi&s;hes us.</P>
<P><HI>It mu&s;t indeed be rav &s;hing</HI> (cried I laughing) <HI>to &s;ee a Caballi&s;t in a Pulpit holding forth to the&s;e Gentlemen.</HI> You &s;hall have the plea&s;ure; my Son, when you will (<HI>&s;aid the Count</HI>) and if you plea&s;e Ill call them together this Even|ing, and preach to them about Mid|night. <HI>At Midnight</HI> (cried I) <HI>I have been told that that is the hour of</HI> Sabat, <HI>or the Devils Night Rendezvous.</HI> The Count fell a laughing; You put me in mind (<HI>&s;aid he</HI>) of the Fopperies that are re|counted by Demonographers concern|ing their imaginary <HI>Sabbat.</HI> I wi&s;h al&s;o for the rarity of the thing, that you be|lieved them likewi&s;e. <HI>Ha! as to the Tales of the</HI> Sabbat (replied I) <HI>I do a&s;|&s;ure you I believe not one word of it.</HI></P>
<P>You do well, my Son (<HI>&s;aid he</HI>) for once more, the Devil hath no power &s;o to play upon Mankind, nor to conver&s;e with men; far le&s;s to make him&s;elf be adored by them, as the Inqui&s;itors be|lieve. The occa&s;ion of this popular re|port, is, becau&s;e the Sages, as I have
<PB N="119" REF="61"> ju&s;t now told you, a&s;&s;emble the Inha|bitants of the Elements, to preach to <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">hem their My&s;teries and Morality; and &s;eeing it happens commonly that &s;ome Gnome is cured of his gro&s;s Error, con|ceives the horror of Non-entity, and con&s;ents to be immortalized; we give him a Maid, marry him, and celebrate the Wedding with all the rejoycing that the Conque&s;t we have made does re|quire: The&s;e are the Dances and Shouts of Joy, which <HI>Ari&s;tottle</HI> &s;ays were heard in &s;ome I&s;lands where no Body was &s;een however. The great <HI>Orpheus</HI> was the fir&s;t that called together the Subterra|nean People, at his fir&s;t meeting <HI>Seba&s;i|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">s</HI> the anciente&s;t of the Gnomes, was immortalized; and from that <HI>Seba&s;ius</HI> the A&s;&s;embly had its name, in which the Sages directed their Speech to him &s;o long as he lived; as appears in the Hymns of the Divine <HI>Orpheus.</HI> The ignorant have confounded things, and have taken oc|ca&s;ion thereupon to tell a thou&s;and im|pertinencies, and to decrie an A&s;&s;em|bly which we only &s;ummon for the glo|ry of the Supream Being. <HI>I could never have imagined</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>that the night</HI> Sa|bat
<PB N="120" REF="62"> <HI>was an A&s;&s;embly of Devotion.</HI> It is though, a mo&s;t holy and Cabali&s;tick one <HI>(replied he)</HI> which the World will not ea|&s;ily be per&s;waded of: But &s;uch is the deplorable ignorance of this unju&s;t Age, men are infatuated with a popular opi|nion, and will not be undeceived. It is in vain for the Sages to &s;peak, Fools are better believed. It is in vain for a Phi|lo&s;opher evidently to demon&s;trate the Fal&s;ity of the Notions that Men have framed to them&s;elves, and give evident proofs to the contrary; let him u&s;e what Experiment and &s;olid Rea&s;on he can: If a man in a Hood appear, who will un|dertake to fal&s;ifie it; Experience and Demon&s;tration are baffled, and Truth cannot again recover its right. Men believe this Hood more than their own Eyes. There hath been a memorable in&s;tance of this Popular Infatuation in your own <HI>France.</HI></P>
<P>The Famous Cabali&s;t <HI>Zedechias</HI> had a mind, in the Reign of your King <HI>Pepin,</HI> to convince the World that the Elements were inhabited by all tho&s;e People, who&s;e Nature I have already de&s;cribed to you. The Expedient he conceited,
<PB N="121" REF="62"> was to advi&s;e the Sylphs to &s;hew them|&s;elves publickly in the Air; they did it with great Pomp and Magnificence. The&s;e admirable Creatures were &s;een in the Air in Humane Shape, &s;ometimes in Battel Array, marching in good Or|der, &s;tanding to their Arms, or encam|ped under rich Pavillions: &s;ometimes in a Fleet of Aereal Ships of an admirable Build, which &s;ailed with gentle <HI>Zephirs.</HI> What became of it? Do you think that the ignorant Age fell to rea&s;on on the Nature of tho&s;e marvellous Spectacles? No &s;uch matter. The People believed at fir&s;t that they were Sorcerers, who had got into the Air, to rai&s;e Tempe&s;ts there, and to &s;howre down Hail upon their Crops. The Learned Divines and Lawyers were quickly of the Opinion of the People, the Emperour believed it al&s;o; and that ridiculous Notion pre|vailed &s;o far, that the Wi&s;e <HI>Charlemaigne,</HI> and after him <HI>Lewis</HI> the Debonaire, im|po&s;ed heavy puni&s;hments upon all tho&s;e pretended Tyrants of the Air. This you may &s;ee in the Fir&s;t Chapter of the Ca|pitular Decrees of tho&s;e two Empe|rours.</P>
<PB N="122" REF="63">
<P>The Sylphs perceiving that the Peo|ple, Pedants, and the Crowned Heads them&s;elves, con&s;pired thus again&s;t them, re&s;olved that they might make them lo&s;e the bad Opinion which they had of their innocent Fleet, to carry away men from all parts, to &s;hew them their Fair Women, their Republick, &amp; Govern|ment, and then to drop them in &s;everal places of the World. They did as they projected, the People &s;eeing Men de|&s;cend, came running from all parts, po&s;|&s;e&s;&s;ed with an Opinion that they were Sorcerers, who detached them&s;elves from their Companions, that they might poi&s;on the Fruits and the Waters; and according to the rage that is in&s;pired by &s;uch imaginations, they dragged the poor innocent men to puni&s;hment. It is incredible what a va&s;t number of them peri&s;hed by Fire and Water in this King|dom.</P>
<P>One day among&s;t the re&s;t it happened at <HI>Lyons,</HI> that three Men and a Woman de&s;cended in tho&s;e Aereal Ships; the whole City gather about them, cry they are Magicians, and that <HI>Grimoald</HI> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 word"> of <HI>Benevent,</HI> the Enemy of <HI>Charle|maigne,</HI>
<PB N="123" REF="63"> &s;ent them to de&s;troy the Crops of <HI>France.</HI> It was to no purpo&s;e for the four Innocents to &s;ay for their ju&s;tifi|cation, that they were of the &s;ame Countrey; that they were lately carri|ed way by miraculous men, who &s;hew|ed them unheard of Wonders, and prayed them to relate them. The infa|tuated People, will not hear their De|fence; but was going to throw them in|to the Fire, when the good man <HI>Ago|bard</HI> Bi&s;hop of <HI>Lyons,</HI> who whil'&s;t he was a Monk, had obtained great Au|thority in that City, came running upon the News; and having heard the Peoples Accu&s;ation, and the Defence of the Accu&s;ed, gravely pronounced that both were fal&s;e. That it was not true that the&s;e Men came down out of the Air, and that what they affirmed to have &s;een there, was ab&s;olutely im|po&s;&s;ible.</P>
<P>The People believed what good Fa|ther <HI>Agobard</HI> &s;aid, better than their own Eyes; was pacified, &s;et at liberty the four Amba&s;&s;adors of the Sylphs, and received with admiration the Book which <HI>Agobard</HI> wrote to confirm the
<PB N="124" REF="64"> Sentence he had pronounced. Thus was the Te&s;timony of the&s;e four Witne&s;|&s;es made frivolous.</P>
<P>In the mean time, &s;eeing they e&s;caped puni&s;hment, they were free to relate what they had &s;een; which was not al|together fruitle&s;s: for if you remember the Age of <HI>Charlemaigne</HI> abounded in Heroick Men. And this is a &s;ign that the Woman who had been with the Sylphs, obtained Credit among&s;t the Ladies of tho&s;e Times; and that by the grace of God many Sylphs were immortali|zed, many Sylphides became likewi&s;e Immortal, by the relation that the&s;e three Men gave of their Beauty; which obliged the people of that Age to apply them&s;elves a little to Philo&s;ophy; and from thence have come all the Stories of Fairies which you find in the amo|rous Legends of the Age of <HI>Charle|maigne,</HI> and the &s;ucceeding. And the&s;e pretended Fairies were nothing el&s;e but Sylphides and Nymphs. Have you read the Stories of tho&s;e Heroes and Fairies? <HI>No, Sir</HI> (&s;aid I.)</P>
<P>I am &s;orry for that (<HI>replied he</HI>) for they would have given you &s;ome Noti|on
<PB N="125" REF="64"> of the State to which the Sages are re&s;olved one day to reduce the World. Tho&s;e Heroick Men, tho&s;e Loves of Nymphs, tho&s;e Journeys to the Earth|ly Paradice, tho&s;e Palaces and Inchant|ed Groves, and all tho&s;e Charming Ad|ventures, are but a weak Emblem of the Life that the Sages leads, and what the World &s;hall be, when Wi&s;dom by their means &s;hall reign therein&punc; There &s;hall be none but Heroes in it; the lea&s;t of our Children &s;hall have the might of <HI>Z<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">roa&s;ter, Apollonius,</HI> or <HI>Melch&s;edec;</HI> and mo&s;t part of them &s;hall be accom|pli&s;hed as the Children that <HI>Adam</HI> would have begotten on <HI>Eve,</HI> had he not &s;inned with her.</P>
<P><HI>Did you not tell me, Sir</HI> (&s;aid I inter|rupting him) <HI>that it was not the will of God that</HI> Adam <HI>and</HI> Eve <HI>&s;hould have had Children; and that</HI> Eve <HI>&s;hould have given her &s;elf only to Sylphs or Salamanders?</HI> It is true (&s;aid the Count) they &s;hould not have procreated the way they did. <HI>Your Cabal Sir</HI> (continued I) <HI>furni&s;hes Man and Woman then with an Invention of Begetting Children after another man|ner than the common Method.</HI> A&s;&s;uredly
<PB N="126" REF="65"> replied he.) <HI>Good now, pray teach me that, Sir</HI> (an&s;wered I.) You &s;hall not know it too day, if you plea&s;e (&s;aid he laughing) I'll revenge the Quarrel of the people of the Elements, becau&s;e you have made &s;o much difficulty to un|deceive your &s;elf of their pretended De|vilry. I make no que&s;tion but your pannick fears are now over. I leave you therefore, that you may have time to meditate and deliberate in the pre|&s;ence of God, to which kind of Ele|mentary Sub&s;tances it will be mo&s;t for his glory and your honour, that you be&s;tow a &s;hare of your Immortality.</P>
<P>In the mean time I'll go recollect my &s;elf a little, for the Di&s;cour&s;e that you have put me upon making this night, to the Gnomes. <HI>Go</HI> (&s;aid I) <HI>explain to them &s;ome Chapter of</HI> Averroes? I be|lieve (<HI>&s;aid the Count</HI>) I may very well have a little touch at that; for I have <HI>a</HI> De&s;ign to preach to them the Excel|lency of Man, that I may work upon them to court our Alliance. And after <HI>Ari&s;totle Averroes</HI> holds two things which it is fit I &s;hould illu&s;trate; the one concerning the Nature of the Mind, and
<PB N="127" REF="65"> the other about the Chief Good: He &s;ays, <HI>That there is but one created Mind, which is the Image of the uncreated; and that that Mind alone is &s;ufficient for all Men.</HI> And as to the Chief Good, <HI>A|verroes</HI> &s;ays, <HI>It con&s;i&s;ts in the Conver&s;ati|on with Angels;</HI> which is not Cabali|&s;tick enough: For Man even in this life is created for the Enjoyment of God, as you &s;hall one day know, and find by Experience, when you are li&s;ted among the Sages.</P>
<P><HI>Thus ended the</HI> Conference <HI>of the Count of</HI> Gabalis. <HI>He return|ed next day, and brought me the Di&s;cour&s;e that he made to the Sub|terranean People: It is a wonder|ful Piece. I would publi&s;h it, with a Continuation of the</HI> Con|ferences <HI>that a Vice-Counte&s;s and I had with that Great Man, were I &s;ure that all my Readers had right thoughts, and would not take it ami&s;s that I make my &s;elf merry with Fools. If I perceive
<PB N="126" REF="66"> that my Book is permitted to do the good that it may produce, and that I be not unju&s;tly &s;u&s;pe|cted to commend</HI> Secret Sciences, <HI>under pretext of making them ri|diculous; I &s;hall continue to plea&s;e my &s;elf with my Count; and may &s;uddenly publi&s;h another Tome.</HI></P>
</DIV2>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
<BACK>
<DIV1 TYPE="letter">
<PB REF="66">
<HEAD>A LETTER To my LORD of ****</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>My LORD,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>YO&V; have alwayes ap|peared to me &s;o affecti|onate to your Friends, that I hope you will pardon the liberty I take in favours of the be&s;t of mine, to be&s;eech your Lordship to have the goodne&s;s for him as to read his Book. I pretend not thereby to engage you in any of the Con&s;equen|ces that my Friend the <HI>Author</HI>
<PB REF="67"> may perhaps promi&s;e to him&s;elf from that; for <HI>Authors</HI> are apt to conceive great hopes. I have even told him that you make it your honour never to &s;peak, but what you think; and that he is not to expect that you will lay a&s;ide &s;o rare a <HI>Quality,</HI> and &s;o new at <HI>Court,</HI> to &s;ay that his Book is good, if you find it bad; but it is my humble de&s;ire only to your <HI>Lord&s;hip,</HI> that you would have the goodne&s;s to de|cide a <HI>Controver&s;ie</HI> that we have had together. You need|ed not have &s;tudied &s;o much <HI>my Lord,</HI> as to become a Prodigy of <HI>Knowledge,</HI> if you thought it not fit to expo&s;e your &s;elf to
<PB REF="67"> be con&s;ulted preferably to <HI>Do|ctors.</HI> This is then the <HI>Di&s;pute</HI> that I have with my <HI>Friend.</HI></P>
<P>I would have obliged him wholly to change the Form of his <HI>Work,</HI> the plea&s;ant &s;train be handles it in, &s;eems not at all proper for the <HI>Subject.</HI> The <HI>Cabal</HI> (I told him) is a &s;erious <HI>Science,</HI> which many of my <HI>Friends</HI> &s;tudy &s;eriou&s;ly; it ought therefore to be refuted the &s;ame way. Seeing all its <HI>Errors</HI> are about <HI>Divinity,</HI> and that is ve|ry difficult to make a &s;erious Man laugh upon any <HI>Subject;</HI> it is mo&s;t dangerous to droll in this, and it is much to be fear|ed that <HI>Devotion</HI> may &s;eem in|tere&s;ted
<PB REF="68"> therein. A <HI>Cabali&s;t</HI> mu&s;t be made to &s;peak like a <HI>Saint,</HI> el&s;e he acts his <HI>Part</HI> very ill; and if he &s;peak like a <HI>Saint,</HI> by that apparent <HI>Sanctity</HI> he impo&s;es upon weak Minds, and better per&s;wades his <HI>Vi&s;ions</HI> than all the <HI>Drollery</HI> that may be made on them, can refute them. To this my <HI>Friend</HI> an&s;wer|ed with the <HI>Pre&s;umption</HI> that <HI>Authors</HI> have when they defend their <HI>Books;</HI> that if the <HI>Cabal</HI> be a &s;erious <HI>Science,</HI> then none but Melancholick people apply them&s;elves to it; and that ha|ving at fir&s;t tried the Dogmatick Stile on that <HI>Subject,</HI> he found him&s;elf &s;o ridiculous in treating
<PB REF="68"> Fopperies &s;eriou&s;ly, that he judg|ed it more proper to turn the <HI>Ri|dicule</HI> upon the Count <HI>Gabalis.</HI> The <HI>Cabal</HI> (&s;aid he) is one of tho&s;e Chimaera's, which Men authori&s;e, when they oppugn them gravely; and which should only be over|thrown by Drolling. He is not ig|norant of the Fathers, and there|fore he cited to me <HI>Tertullian.</HI> You who know it better than he and I both, my Lord; judge if the Citation be fal&s;e: <HI>Multa &s;unt ri&s;u digna revinci, ne gravitate adorentur.</HI> He &s;ays that <HI>Tertul|lian</HI> u&s;es that pretty Sentence a|gain&s;t the <HI>Valentinians,</HI> who were a kind of mo&s;t <HI>Enthu&s;ia&s;tick Cabali&s;ts.</HI></P>
<PB REF="69">
<P>As to Devotion which comes always in play thorowout this <HI>Work</HI> (he &s;ays) that a <HI>Cabali&s;t</HI> mu&s;t unavoidably &s;peak of God: but it is happy, that in this <HI>Sub|ject</HI> it is of a more unavoidable nece&s;&s;ity, for pre&s;erving the <HI>Ca|bali&s;tick Character,</HI> never to &s;peak of God, but with extream <HI>Veneration;</HI> &s;o <HI>Religion</HI> can receive no blemish: and the weak Wits mu&s;t be &s;illier than the Lord <HI>Gabalis,</HI> if they &s;uffer them&s;elves to be inchanted by that Extravagant <HI>Devotion;</HI> or if the <HI>Raillery</HI> that is put up|on it, remove not the <HI>Charm.</HI></P>
<P>By the&s;e and many other Rea|&s;ons which I shall not alledge
<PB REF="69"> here, becau&s;e I have a Mind your Lordship should be of my Opinion; my Friend pretends that he ought to write again&s;t the <HI>Cabal</HI> merrily. Reconcile us if you plea&s;e, I hold it be&s;t to pro|ceed again&s;t the <HI>Cabali&s;ts</HI> and all the <HI>Secret Sciences,</HI> by &s;erious and vigorous Arguments. He &s;aith that <HI>Truth</HI> is naturally brisk, and that it is far more powerful when it laughs: be|cau&s;e an ancient <HI>Author,</HI> whom without doubt, you know, &s;ays in a place, which, con&s;idering the excellent Memory God hath en|dowed you with, you will certain|ly remember; <HI>Convenit Verita|ti ridere, quia laetans.</HI></P>
<PB REF="70">
<P>He adds, That the <HI>Secret Sciences</HI> are dangerous, if they be not handled in a &s;train that may make them contemptible; expo&s;ing their ridiculous <HI>My&s;te|ry,</HI> and taking off People from lo|&s;ing time in the Study of them; by shewing them the depth, and di&s;covering the extravagancy thereof. Give Sentence, <HI>my Lord,</HI> the&s;e are our Rea&s;ons. I shall receive your Verdict with the re&s;pect which you know does always accompany the Zeal wherewith I am</P>
<CLOSER><SALUTE>My LORD,</SALUTE>
<SIGNED>Your Lord&s;hips mo&s;t humble and obedient Servant,</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="publisher's advertisement">
<PB REF="70">
<HEAD>A CATALOGUE <HI>Of &s;ome</HI> BOOKS <HI>&s;old by</HI> ROBERT HARFORD <HI>at the</HI> Angel <HI>in</HI> Cornhil <HI>near the</HI> Royal Ex|change.</HEAD>
<P><HI>GELL's Remains,</HI> being &s;undry Pious and Learned Notes and Ob&s;ervations on the <HI>New Te|&s;tament;</HI> Opening and Explain|ing it: wherein Je&s;us Chri&s;t, as ye&s;ter|day, too day, and the &s;ame for ever; is illu&s;trated: by that learned and judicious Man Dr. <HI>R. Gell,</HI> late Rector of St. <HI>Mary Aldermanbury, London;</HI> in two Volumes <HI>Folio.</HI> Price 30 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P><HI>Chri&s;tian Religions Appeal from the groundle&s;s prejudice of the Scepticks, to the Bar of Common Rea&s;on;</HI> wherein is proved, 1. That that the Apo&s;tles did not delude
<PB REF="71"> the World. 2. Nor were them&s;elves deluded. 3. Scripture Matters of Faith have the be&s;t Evidence. 4. The Divi|nity of Scriptures is as demon&s;trable as the Being of a Deity. By <HI>John Smith</HI> Rector of St. <HI>Maries</HI> in <HI>Colche&s;ter. Folio,</HI> price 12 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P>The P&s;alms of <HI>David</HI> paraphra&s;ed and turned into Engli&s;h Ver&s;e, according to the Common Meeter; as they are u&s;ual|ly &s;ung in Pari&s;h Churches. By <HI>Miles Smith Octavo,</HI> price 5 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P><HI>The Ruin of Papacy,</HI> Or a Clear Di|&s;play of Simony of the Romi&s;h Clergy; with a Circulatory Letter to the Fathers of tho&s;e Virgins that de&s;ert their Fami|lies to turn Nuns: By the Learned Pen of that Famous Divine <HI>Peter du Moulin, Octavo,</HI> price 1 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P>The Sphere of <HI>Marcus Manilius,</HI> made an Engli&s;h-Poem, with Learned Anno|tations and a large Appendix; reciting the Names of Ancient and Modern A|&s;tronomers: With &s;omething memora|ble of them. Illu&s;trated with Copper Cuts. By <HI>Edward Sherburne</HI> <ABBR>E&s;q</ABBR> <HI>Folio,</HI> price 30 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P>The Admired Piece of Phy&s;iognomy
<PB REF="71"> and Chyromancy, the Symmetrical Pro|portions and Signal Moles of the Body, fully and accurately explained; with their Natural Predictive Significations, both to Men and Women: Being De|lighful and Profitable. With the Subject of Dreams made plain. Whereunto is added the Art of Memory. By <HI>Richard Saunders.</HI> Illu&s;trated with Cuts and Fi|gures. <HI>Folio,</HI> price bound 12 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P>The In&s;titution of the Laws and Cere|monies of the mo&s;t Noble Order of the Garter, adorned with many Sculptures in Copper: By <HI>Elias A&s;hmole</HI> <ABBR>E&s;q</ABBR> <HI>Wind|&s;or</HI> Herald at Arms. <HI>Folio,</HI> price bound 30 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P><HI>Pharamond,</HI> That Fam'd Romance, being an Excellent Hi&s;tory of <HI>France.</HI> In Twelve Parts. By the Author of <HI>Cleopa|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ra</HI> and <HI>Ca&s;&s;andra. Folio,</HI> price bound 30 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P><HI>The New World of Words,</HI> or, A Gene|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">al Engli&s;h Dictionary: Containing the <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">roper Significations and Etimologies of all Words derived from other Langua|ges. Together with the Definitions of all <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ho&s;e Terms that conduce to the Under|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">tanding of any of the Arts and Sciences. The Fourth Edition, with many U&s;eful
<PB REF="72"> Additions. Collected and Publi&s;hed by <HI>E. P. Folio.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Longitude not found,</HI> or, An An&s;wer to a Treati&s;e written by <HI>Henry Bond</HI> Senior, &s;hewing a way to find the Longitude by the Magnetical Inclinatory Needle: Wherein is proved, That the Longitude is not, nor cannot be found by the Mag|netical Inclinatory Needle, By <HI>Peter Blackborrow</HI> Gent. price 22.</P>
<P><HI>Catalogus Stellarum Au&s;tralium, &s;ive Supplementum Catalogi Tichonici; exhibens Longitudines &amp; Latitudines Stellarum Fixarum: Quae, prope Polum Antarcti|cum &s;itae, in Horizonte &V;raniburgico Ti|choni in con&s;picuae fuere, accurato Calcu|lo ex Di&s;tantiis &s;upputatas, &amp; ad Annum</HI> 1677, <HI>&amp;c. Authore</HI> Edmundo Halleio, <HI>e Colleg.</HI> Reg. Oxon. <HI>Quarto,</HI> price 1 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P><HI>The Je&s;uits Catechi&s;me</HI> according to Saint <HI>Ignatius Loyola Quarto,</HI> price 1 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P>A Treati&s;e of Taxes and Contributi|ons. Very requi&s;ite for State&s;men. <HI>Quar|to,</HI> price 1 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P>The Priviledges and Practices of Par|liaments in <HI>England</HI> Collected out of the Common Laws of this Land. Com|mended to the High Court of Parliament. <HI>Quarto,</HI> price 6 <ABBR><HI>d.</HI></ABBR></P>
<PB REF="72">
<P><HI>The Accompli&s;hed Cook,</HI> or, The My|&s;tery of the whole Art of Cookery. By <HI>Robert May</HI> in <HI>Octavo,</HI> price bound 5 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P><HI>A Mathematical Compendium,</HI> or, U&s;eful Practices in Arithmetick, Geo|metry, A&s;tronomy, and Navigation; Embattelling and Quartering of Armies, Fortification and Gunnery; Gauging and Dialling: Explaining the Logarithms. With new Indices, <HI>Nepair</HI>'s Rods or Bones: Making of Movements, and Application of <HI>Pendulums.</HI> With the Projection of the Sphere for an Univer&s;al Dial, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> Collected out of the Notes and Papers of Sir <HI>Jonas Moore.</HI> By <HI>Ni|cholas Stephen&s;on.</HI> The Second Edition, with many Additions. In Twelves.</P>
<P><HI>The Art of Wart,</HI> and the way that <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">s at pre&s;ent practi&s;ed in <HI>France.</HI> In two Parts. <HI>Octavo,</HI> price bound 2 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR> 6 <ABBR><HI>d.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P><HI>A Treati&s;e of Arms and Engines of War,</HI> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">nriched with 20 Copper Plates; out of <HI>French,</HI> in <HI>Octavo,</HI> price bound 2 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR> 6 <ABBR><HI>d,</HI></ABBR></P>
<P>The Military Duties of the Officers of Hor&s;e, containing the Exerci&s;es of the Cavalry, according to the pre&s;ent Pra|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">tice of the Times. Illu&s;trated with Cop|<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">er Plates; <HI>Octavo</HI> price 2 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<PB REF="73">
<P><HI>Humane Prudence,</HI> or the &s;everal ways for a man to advance him&s;elf at Court. In Twelves, price bound 1 <ABBR><HI>s.</HI></ABBR></P>
<P><HI>Indiculus &V;niver&s;alis,</HI> Or the Univer&s;e in Epitome: Wherein the Names of al|mo&s;t all the Works of Nature, of all Arts and Sciences, with their mo&s;t ne|ce&s;&s;ary Terms, are in Engli&s;h, Latine, and French, Methodically and di&s;tinctly di|ge&s;ted, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> Compo&s;ed at fir&s;t in French and Latine, for the u&s;e of the Dauphin of <HI>France;</HI> by the Learned <HI>T. Pomey</HI> Ahd now made Engli&s;h, by <HI>A. Lovell M. A.</HI> in <HI>Octavo.</HI></P>
<PB REF="73">
</DIV1>
</BACK>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
