or unlawful art Thus you see my Son that the Sages are more innocent than you thought You say nothing to me I admire Sir said I and I begin to fear that you will make me become a Chymist Ah! God preserve thee from that my Child cryed he 'T is not to these fooleries that your Nativity designs you I will warrant you on the contrary from being troubled about that I told you already That the Sages shew not these things but to those whom they will not admit into their Society You shall have all these Advantages and others infinitely more Glorious and more Pleasant by wayes cleerly more Phylosophical I had not described these Methods to you but to let you see the Innocence of this Phylosophy and to take you out of these Panick Fears I thank God Sir answered I I am not at present in any such Fear as I was even now And although I do not yet resolve upon the Accommodation which you pose to me with the Salamanders I cannot refrain from having the Curiosity to learn how you have discovered that these Nymphs and these Sylphs Dye Truly replyed he they tell us so and we see them Dye How said I Can you see them Dye and yet your Commerce renders them Immortal That would be well purâ—ued he if the Number of the Sages equalled the Number of these People Besides that there are many amongst them who rather choose to Dye than hazard by becoming Immortal the being so unhappy as they see the Devils are And 't is the Devil who Inspired them with these Opinions for there is no Mischief which he doth not do to hinder these poor Creatures from becoming Immortal by our Allyance Insomuch that I look upon it and so ought you my Son as a most pernicious Temptation and a Motion of very little Charity to have this Aversion which you shew to it Moreover as concerning their Death of which you speak What was it that obliged the Oracle of Apollo to say That all those who speak Oracles were Mortal as well as he as Porphyrius reports And What think you was the meaning of that Voyce which was heard on all the Coast of Italy and struck so great a Terror into all those who were upon the Sea THE GREAT PAN IS DEAD They were the People of the Air who gave notice to the People of the Water that the Chiefest and most Aged of all the Sylphs was newly Dead At that time when this Voyce was heard said I to him I suppose that the World worshipped Pan and the Nymphs And that these Gentlemen whose Commerce you are Preaching of to me were the False Gods of the Heathens 'T is true my Son reply'd he The Sages have alwayes been of that opinion That the Devil never had the Power to make himself Worshipped He is too Unhappy and too Weak ever to have had this Pleasure and this Authority But he has been able to perswade the Elementary Hosts to shew themselves to Men and make men erect Temples to them and by the Natural Dominion which every one has over the Element which he inhabits they trouble the Air and the Sea set the Earth in Combustion and dispense the Fire of Heaven according to their Humour Insomuch that they had no great trouble to be taken for Deities so long as the Sovereign Being differ'd the Salvation of the World But the Devil never received all the Advantage of his Malice which he hoped he should For it has happened from thence that Pan the Nymphs and the rest of the Elementary People having found the Means of changing this Commerce of Worship into a Commerce of Love for you may remember that amongst the Antients Pan was the King of those Gods whom they called Incubuses and who alwayes earnestly sought the Acquaintance of Maids many Heathens have escaped the Devil and shall never Burn in Hell I do not well understand you Sir said I. You have not minded me to understand me continued he smiling and in a jeering Tone Behold what you pass over and likewise what your Doctors pass over who know not what these Excellent Physicks mean Behold the Great Mystery of all this Part of Phylosophy which concerns the Elements and which will take away if you have but never so little Love for your self this Repugnance to Phylosophy which you have witnessed to me this Day Know then my Son and go not about to divulge this great Arcanum to any unworthy Ignorant Know that as the Sylphs acquire an Immortal Soul by the Allyance which they Contract with the Men who are Predestinated so also the Men who have no right to Eternal Glory Those Miserable Wretches whose Immortality is but a lamentable Advantage for whom the Messias was not sent Then you Gentlemen of the Cabal are Jansenists likewise interrupted I We know not what that is my Child proceeded he somewhat Angryly and we â—corn to inform our selves wherein consists the different Sects and divers Religions with which the Ignorant puzzle their Heads We keep to the Antient Religion of our Fathers the Philosophers wherein 't is very necessary that I instruct you But to come again to the purpose These Men whose sad Immortality is nothing but an Eternal Misfortune The unhappy Children whom the Sovereign Father has neglected have also this Recourse that they may become Mortal by Contracting an Allyance with these Elementary People So that you see the Sages hazard nothing for Eternity If they are Predestinated they have the Pleasure to carry with them to Heaven in quitting the Prison of this Body the Sylphide or Nymph which they have Immortalized And if they be not Predestinated the Commerce of the Nymph renders their Soul Mortal and delivers them from the Horrors of the Second Death So the Devil saw all the Pagans escape who Allyed themselves to the Nymphs And so the Sages or Friends of the Sages when God Inspires us to Communicate to any one the Four Elementary Secrets which I have now been teaching you free themselves from the Peril of being Damned Without Lying Sir cryed I not daring to put him again into an ill Humor and finding it requisite to defer the telling him plainly my Opinion till I should have discovered all the Secrets of his Cabal which I judged by this Glimps must needs be very full of Pleasure and Divertisement Without Lying You advance Wisdom to a great Height And you had reason to tell me That this surpassed all our Doctors And I believe that this likewise passes all our Magistrates too And that if they could discover who those were that ecsaped the Devil by this means as Ignorance is very Unjust they would engage in the Devil's Interest against these Fugitives and make a strong Party for him Yes It is for that pursued the Count that I have so strictly commanded you and do again command you to keep Religiously this Secret Your Judges are strange Persons They Condemn a most innocent Action as a dismal
Scheme of your Nativity which cannot fail If it be not now and that too by my means 't will be a great wonder as appears by this Saturn retrograde Alas Sir said I to him if I must become a Sage it will never be but by the means of the Great Gabalis But to deal freely with you I am affraid that you will find it a difficult matter to bend me to this Philosophical Mode It seems continued he that you should be but ill read in Physicks that cannot be perswaded of the existance of these People I know not answered I but I cannot Imagine that these can be any things else but Fiends disguised Do you still said he rather believe your own Whimseys than Natural Reason than Plato Pythagorus Celsus Psellus Proclus Porphyrius Jamlicus Plotinus Trismegistus Nollius Dorneus Fludd than the great Philippus Aureolus Theophractus Bombst Paracelsus de Honeinhem and than all our Society I would believe you Answered I as soon nay sooner than all these But Dear Sir could you not so order the business with the rest of your society that I might not be obliged to have Carnal knowledge of these Elementary Ladies Away away reply'd he you have your own Liberty without doubt for no-body loves unless he has a mind to it Few of the Sages have been able to defend themselves from their charms But it has been observed that some reserving themselves wholly and entirely for great things as you will know in time would never do this honor to the Nymphs I will be then of this number said I But yet neither can I resolve to loose time about the ceremonies which I have heard a Prelate say must be practized by those who mean to converse with their Genius's This Prelate knew not what he said said the Count for you shall see ere long that there are no Genius's there and besides that never any Sage employed either Ceremonies or Superstition for the familiarity of the Genius's no more than for the People of whom we speak The Cabalistes do nothing but by the Principles of Nature And if there are sometimes found in our Books certain strange words characters or Fumigations 't is but to conceal the Philosophical Principles from the Ignorant Admire the Simplicity of Nature in all her most marvellous Operations And in this Simplicity a Harmony and Agreement so great so just and so necessary that it will make you return back in despite of your self from your weak Imaginations That which I am now going about to tell you we teach those of our Disciples which we will not let altogether enter into the Sanctuary of Nature and whom we will nevertheless not utterly deprive of the Society of the Elementary People meerly out of the compassion which we have for these poor wretches The Salamanders as you have already perhaps comprehended are Composed of the most subtile Parts of the Sphaere of Fire conglobated and organiz'd by the Action of the Universal Fire concerning which I shall one day entertain you further so called because it is principal of all the Motions of Nature The Sylphes in like manner are Composed of the purest Atomes of the Air The Nymphs of the most delicate parts of the Water and the Gnomes of the subtlest parts of the Earth There was a great Proportion betwixt Adam and these so perfect Creatures because they being composed of that which was most pure in the four Elements He comprehended the perfections of these four sorts of People and was their Natural King But since the time that his sin precipitated him into the Excrements of the Elements as you shall see hereafter the Harmony was disordered and there was no more proportion he being become Impure and Dull in respect of these substances so pure and so subtil What remedy for this evil How shall we remount this throne and recover this lost Soveraignty O Nature Why do they study thee so little Do you not comprehend my Son with what simplicity nature can render to man the Goods which he has lost Alas Sir reply'd I I am very ignorant in all these simplicities you speak of And yet pursued he it is very easie to become knowing in them If we would recover that Empire over the Salamanders we must purifie and exalt the Element of Fire which is in us and raise up the tone of this slackned string we need do no more but concenter the Fire of the World by Concave Mirrours in a Globe of Glass And herein is that great piece of Art which all the Ancients have so Religiously concealed and which the Divine Theophrastus has discovered There is formed in this Globe a Solar powder which being purified by it self from the Mixture of other Elements and being prepared according to art becomes in a very little time Soveraignly proper to exalt the Fire which is in us and make us become according to our Phrase of a Fiery Nature From that time the inhabitants of the Sphere of Fire become our inferiors and ravisht to see our mutual Harmony re-stablisht and that we once more approach to them They have all the kindness for us which they have for their own Species all the respect which they owe to the Image and to the Lieutenant of their Creator and all the concern which may make evident in them the desire of obtaining by us the immortality which they want 'T is true that as they are more subtil than those of the other Elements they live a very long time so they are not very forward to importune the Sages to make them immortal You may accommodate your self with one of these if the aversion which you have witnessed to me last not with you to the end perchance she will never speak to you of that which you fear so much It will not be so with the Sylphs the Gnomes and the Nymphs For they living a less time have more need of us and so their familiarity is more easie to obtain You need but shut up a glass fill'd with Conglobated Air Water or Earth and expose it to the Sun for a month Then separate the Element according to art which is very easie to do if it be Earth or Water 'T is a marvellous thing to see what a vertue every one of these purified Elements have to attract the Nymphes Sylphs and Gnomes In taking but never so little everyday for about a month together one shall see in the Air the volant Republique of the Sylphs The Nymphes come in shoales up the Rivers and the Guardians of Treasures presenting you with their riches Thus without Characters without Ceremonies without Barbarous words you become absolute Master over all these people They require no worship of the Sages since they know well enough that he is nobler than they Thus venerable Nature teaches her Children how to repair the Elements by the Elements Thus is Harmony re-established Thus man recovers his natural Empire and can do all things in the Elements without Daemon
Doctors of this Age A poor Sylphe dares not shew his Head amongst us but he is presently taken for a Fiend A Nymph cannot labor to become Immortal without passing for an unclean Spirit And a Salamander must not shew himself lest he be accounted a Devil and the pure Flames which compose him for Hell-Fire which he carryes along with him They have contrived that they may dispel these Suspicions to make the Signe of the Cross when they shall appear Kneel down before the Divine Names and pronounce them too with Reverence And yet all these Precautions are vain Nor can all your Tricks ever procure that they should be reputed Enemies of God whom they Adore more Religiously than those who fly from them Very good Sir said I to him You think it seems that these People are wondrous Devout likewise Very Devout answered he and very Zealous for the Deity The excellent Discourses which they make of the Divine Essence and their admirable Prayers do greatly Edify us Have they Prayers too said I to him I should be glad to see One of their making 'T is easie to satisfy you replyed he and to the end that I may clear you from having any suspicion and that you may not suspect me for the Contriver of it Listen to that which the Salamander who answered in the Temple of Delphos taught the Pagans and which Porphyrius relates It contains sublime Theology And you will see by it that he received not from these Sage Creatures any other Doctrine than that the World should Worship the onely True God THE Salamander's Prayer IMmortal Eternal Vnspeakable and Sacred Father of all Things who art carryed upon the Chariots of the Spheres which alwayes rowl about Ruler over the Etherial Armyes where the Throne of thy Power is raised from the high Top of which Thine all-piercing Eyes behold All and thy pure and holy Ears hear All. Help thy Children whom thou hast loved from the Birth of Ages For thy Bright thy Great and Eternal Majesty shines above the Earth the Heavens and the Stars Thou art raised above them Oh thâ—… sparkling Fire There thou givest Light and entertainest thy Self with thine own Splendor and from thy Essence flow forth Eternal Rivers of Light which nourish thy Infinit Spirit This Infinit Spirit produceth all Things and makes this inexhaustible Treasure of Matter which can never fail the Generation which alwayes compasseth it about by reason of the numberless Forms with which it is pregnant and with which thou hast fill'd it at the Beginning From this Spirit do these most Holy Kings also draw their original who are round about thy Throne and who compose thy Court O Father universal O Thou Holy One O Father of Blessed Mortals and Immortals Thou hast particularly created Powers who are marvellously like to Thine eternal Thought and to Thy adorable Essence Thou hast established them above the Angels who declare thy Will to the World In fine Thou hast created Us a third sort of Powers in the Elements Our continual Exercise is to praise Thee and to adore Thy Dispensations We burn with the Desire of possessing Thee O Father O Mother the tenderest of Mothers O admirable Example of the Passions and Tenderness of Mothers O Son the Flower of all Sons O Form of all Forms Soul Spirit Harmony and Number of all Things What say you to this Prayer of the Salamanders Is it not very Wise very Lofty and very Devout And likewise very Obscure answered I I once heard a Preacher paraphrase upon this and he proved by it that the Devil besides the other Vices which he has is above all a great Hypocrite Alas cryed the Count Then What Recourse have ye to betake your selves to O ye poor Elementary People Ye tell Marvels of the Nature of God Of the Father Of the Son Of the Holy Ghost Of the Assistant Intelligences Of Angels and Of the Heavens Ye make admirable Prayers and ye teach them to Men And yet after all ye are but Fiends and Hypocrites Sir interrupted I you do me no pleasure at all in invoking on this manner this sort of People Alas my Son continued he Be not troubled that I call upon them but that your weakness hinders you from admiring hereafter that you saw not so many Examples as you will wish you had done of their Alliance with Men. Alas Where is the Women whose Imagination your Doctors have not Corrupted so much as that she thinks not but with Horror on this Commerce and trembles at the very Aspect of a Sylphe Where is the Man who flyes not from the Sight of them if he pretends but never so little to be a virtuous honest Man How rarely do we find a Man of worth who desires their Familiarity Nor are there any but Debauched Persons or Covetous or Ambitious or Impostors who seek for this Honour which yet they shall never attain to I assure you For The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom What then said I shall become of all these Airy People since all such as are Honest are so set against them Well said he The Arme of God is not shortned and the Devil shall not draw to himself all the Advantages he hopes for from the Ignorance and Error which he has vented to their prejudice For besides the Philosophers who are a great number and remedy it the best they can by utterly Renouncing Women God has permitted all these People to use all Innocent Arts which they can contrive to converse with Men without their Knowledge What do you tell me Sir cryed I I tell you Truth pursued he Do you believe that a Dog may have Children by a Woman No answered I. Nor a Munky added he Neither replyed I. Nor a Bear continued he Neither Dog nor Munkey nor Bear said I to him For that is impossible without all doubt 'T is against Nature against Reason and against Common Sense Very good said the Count But are not the Kings of the Goths descended from a Bear and a Swedish Princess 'T is true said I the History sayes it And were not the Pegusians and Syonians of India reply'd he Born from a Dog and a Woman I have read that too said I to him And had not that Portugess Woman continued he who was exposed in a Desart Island Children by a great Munkey Our Divines Sir said I answer to that That the Devil taking the Shape of these Beasts You are going to alledge again interrupted the Count the Nonsensical Imaginations of your Authors Pray comprehend once for all that the Sylphes seeing themselves taken for Devils when they appear in Human Shape to diminish this Aversion which is had against them take the Shapes of these Beasts and so address themselves to the wanton Frailty of Women who are affrighted at a Lovely Sylphide but not at a Dog or Munkey I could tell you many Tales of your little Bolognian Dogs and certain pretty Ladyes in the World But I
Company as he could desire I beseech cry'd he lifting up his Eyes and Hands towards Heaven I beseech the Eternal Wisdom that I may be Inspired in such a manner as that I may not conceal any of these inexpressible Truths from you How Happy shall you be my Son if Heaven has the Kindness to put those Dispositions into your Soul which the High Mysteries require of you You are about to Learn how to command Nature God alone shall be your Master and the Sages only shall be your Equals The Supream Intelligences shall esteem it a Glory to obey your Desires The Devils shall not dare to approach where you are Your Voyce shall make them tremble in the most profound Caves of their Abyss And all the Invisible People who inhabit the Four Elements shall account themselves Happy to be the Ministers of your Pleasures I Adore thee O Great God! for having Crowned Man with so much Glory and for having Established him the Soveraign Monarch over all the Works of thy Hands Do you feel my Son added he turning himself towards me Do you feel this Heroick Ambition which is the certain Character of the Children of wisdom Dare you desire to Serve nothing but God only and to Rule over all Things which is not of God Have you comprehended what it is to be a Man And Do you not detest the being of a Slave since you were Born to be a Soveraign And if you have these Noble Thoughts as the Figure of your Nativity suffers me not to doubt consider soberly if you can have the Courage and Strength to Renounce all Things which may be an Obstacle to you in the attaining that Greatness to which you were Born He stopt there and beheld me stedfastly as attending my Answer or as if he were reading my Heart How much soever the beginning of this Discourse had made me hope that we should enter presently upon the Matter so much the more was I become desperate at what he had last said The word RENOVNCE so affrighted me that I questioned whether or no he was not about to propose to me the Renouncing of my Baptism or Paradise So that not knowing how to get out of these Streights Renounce said I to him Why Sir need I Renounce any thing Truly reply'd he there is need enough and so much need that we must begin with that Point first I know not whether or no you can resolve upon it but I know very well that Wisdom does not inhabit a Body subject to Sin no more than it enters into a Soul prepossessed with Error or Malice The Sages will never admit you into their Society if you do not Renounce from this very present a Thing which cannot stand in Competition with Wisdom You must added he stooping down and whispering in my Ear You must Renounce all Carnal Commerce with Women I could not forbear breaking out into a fit of Laughter at this pleasant Proposition Well Sir cryed I you have quitted me for a very small Matter I had thought that you would have proposed to me some strange Renunciation but since it is only Women I assure you that Work is long since done I am very Chast God be thanked Nevertheless Sir in regard that Solomon was Wiser than I it may be shall ever be and that all his Wisdom could not hinder him from being Corrupted by them I beseech you tell me what Expedient you Gentlemen take to keep you from this Sex And what Inconvenience there would be if in the Philosophers Paradice every Adam had his Eve There you ask great Matters reply'd he consulting with himself if he should Answer my Question or not but yet since I see that you desert Women without any Trouble I shall tell you one of the Reasons which have obliged the Sages to impose this Condition on their Disciples and from thence you will know in what Ignorance all those Live who are not of our Number When you shall be enrolled amongst the Children of Philosophy and that your Eyes shall be Fortifyed by the use of our Sacred Medicine you shall immediatly discover that the Elements are inhabited by most Perfect Creatures from the Knowledge and Commerce of whom the Sin of the Unfortunate Adam has excluded all his too Unhappy Posterity This immense Space which is between the Earth and the Heavens has more Noble Inhabitants than Birds and Flyes This vast Ocean has also other Troops besides Dolphins and Whales The Profoundity of the Earth is not only for Moles And the Element of Fire more Noble than the other Three was not made to be Unprofitable and Voyd The Air is full of an innumerable Multitude of People having Human Shape somewhat Fierce in appearance but Tractable upon experience Great Lovers of the Sciences Subtil Officious to the Sages and Enemies to Sots and Ignorants Their Wives and their Daughters have a kind of Masculine Beauty such as we describe the Amazons to have How Sir cryed I Would you perswade me that these Fiends you speak of are Marryed Be not so Fierce my Son reply'd he for so small a Matter Believe whatsoever I tell you to be Solid and true I am making known nothing to you but the Principles of the Antient Cabal and there needs nothing more to justify them than that you should believe your own Eyes But receive with a Meek Spirit the Light which God sends you by my Interposition Forget all that you may have heard touching these Matters in the Schools of the Ignorants whereat you will be displeased when you shall be convinced by Experience and be obliged to disown what formerly you had a good Opinion of to no purpose Listen then to the End and know that the Seas and Rivers are Inhabited as well as the Air The Antient Sages have called these kind of People Vndians or Nymphs They have but few Males amongst them but the Women are there in great Numbers Their Beauty is marvellous and the Daughters of Men have nothing in them comparable to these The Earth is filled almost to the Center with Gnomes or Pharyes a People of small Stature the Guardians of Treasures of Mines and of Precious Stones They are Ingenious Friends of Men and easie to be commandded They furnish the Children of the Sages with as much Money as they have need of and never ask any other Reward of their Services than the Glory of being Commanded The Gnomides or Wives of these Gnomes or Pharyes are Little but very Handsom and their Habit marvellously Curious As for the Salamanders the Inhabitants of the Region of Fire They serve the Philosophers but they seek not for their Company with any great Eagerness and their Wives and Daughters will rarely be seen They do wisely interrupted I and for my share I shall excuse their Appearing to me Why â—o â—aid the Count Why Sir reply'd I What Business can I have to Converse with so ugly a Creature as a Salamander be it either Male or Female
produce a Man who cannot be suspected in this Cause a Pagan and another kind of Pagan than Lucretius Lucian or the Epicureans A Pagan possest with a Real Belief that there are Gods and Devils without number He was a Man superstitious above measure and a Great Magician or I am much mistaken in saying it and by Consequence a great Friend of the Devil 'T is Porphyrius Behold some of the Oracles which he relates word for word An ORACLE THere is above the Celestial Fire an Incorruptible Flame alwayes sparkling the Spring of Life the Fountain of all Beings the Original of all Things This Flame produceth all Things and Nothing perisheth but what it consumes It makes it Self known by it Self This Fire cannot be contained in any Place 'T is without Body and without Matter It encompasses the Heavens And there goes out from it a little Spark which makes all the Fire of the Sun of the Moon and of the Stars Behold What I know of God! Strive not to Know more of him for that is beyond thy Capacity how Wise so-ever thou art As to the rest Know that unjust and wicked Man cannot hide himself from the Presence of God! No Subtilty nor Excuse can disguise any thing from his peirceing Eyes All is full of God and God is in All You see here my Son that this Oracle savours not very much of the Devil At least answered I the Devil in this is very wide from the Character which is given of him Here is another answered he which is rather better An ORACLE THere is in God an Immense Profoundity of Flame Nevertheless the Heart should not fear to touch this Adorable Fire or to be touched by it It will never be consumed by this so sweet Fire whose Mild and Tranquil Heat makes the Binding the Harmony and the Duration of the World Nothing subsists but by this Fire which is God Himself No Person begot Him He is without Mother He knows all Things and can be taught Nothing He is Infallible in his Designes and his Name is unspeakable Behold now what God is As for Us who are his Messengers WE ARE BUT A LITTLE PART OF GOD. Well Sir What say you now to this I would say to both these reply'd I That God can force the Father of Lyes to bear Witness to the Truth Pray then observe another continued the Count which will clear you of this Scruple An ORACLE ALas O ye TRIPODES Lament and make the Funeral Oration of your Apollo HE IS MORTAL HE IS GOING TO DYE HE IS EXTINCT Because the Light of the Heavenly Flame makes him extinguish You see plainly my Son that he whatsoever he be that speaks in these Oracles and who so well explains to the Pagans the Essence the Unity the Immensity and the Eternity of God He declares that he is Mortal and that he is but a Spark of God It is not therefore the Devil who Speaks since he is Immortal and that God would not force him to say that he was not so It is concluded that Satan is never divided against himself For Would it be the way to make him Adored to say that there is but one God He sayes That he is Mortal Since when has the Devil been so Humble as to take away from his Natural Qualities You may see then my Son that if the Being of Him who is called by way of Excellence the God of Knowledge subsists it cannot be the Devil who spake in the Oracles But if it be not the Devil said I to him either Lying out of the Wantonness of his Heart or telling Truth by Constraint when he speaks of God To what then will your Cabal attribute all these Oracles which you maintain have been really given forth Is it to an Exhalation of the Earth as Aristotle Cicero and Plutarch suppose No such thing my Child said the Count Thanks to the Sacred Cabal I have not my Imagination clouded to such a Degree How replyed I Do you Esteem this Opinion so Phanatick The Favourers of it are Persons of clear Sense They are not my Child I can assure you of this Judgment continued he It is impossible to attribute to this Exhaltion all what has passed in these Oracles As for Example That Man spoken of by Tacitus who appeared in a Dream to the Priests of Hercules's Temple in Armenia and commanded them to get them Horses ready for Hunting Thus far might it have been an Exhalation But when these Coursers returned at Night quite tyred and their Quivers emptied of all their Arrows and that the next Morning there were found as many Beasts kil'd in the Forrest as they had put Arrows into their Quivers You must confess that it could not be an Exhaltion that could work this Effect It could less be the Devil for that would be to have a Notion not at all Reasonable nor Cabalistick of the Misery of the Enemy of God to think that he were permitted to divert himself with Coursing of Hares and Wild-Beasts To what then said I to him does the Sacred Cabal attribute all this Hold answered he before I discover this Mystery to you I must cure your Spirits of this Fancy with which they may be prepossessed concerning this pretended Exhalation for methought that you cited with an Emphasis Aristotle Plutarch and Cicero You might likewise have cited Jamblicus who as great a Wit as he was was some time in this Error which nevertheless he soon quitted after he had better examined the Matter in the Book of Mysteries Petrus Aponius Pomponacius Levinius Sirenius and Lucilius Vaninus are infinitly pleased to have found this Defect in any of the Antients All these pretended great Wits who when they speak of Divine things rather say what they desire than what they know they will not allow any thing Supernatural to be in Oracles for fear of acknowledging something above man They are so afraid to have a Ladder made them to Climb up to God that they dare not acknowledge by degrees these Spiritual Creatures they rather choose to build one to Descend by it into nothing Instead of raiseing themselves up towards Heaven they Creep down into the Earth and instead of mans searching among the Superiour Beings for the Cause of these Transports which carry him above himself and make him in a manner a Divinity they weakly Attribute to impowerful Exhalation This force of penetrating into what is to come of discovering things conceal'd and Advancing himself up even to the highest Secrets of the Divine Essence Such is the misery of Man when the Spirit of Contradiction and Humor of thinking contrary to others does possess him Far off from attaining his Ends he runs himself into a mist and loses himself These Libertines will not subject men to Substances less material than himself and yet subject him to an Exhalation And without considering that there is no parallel between this Chymerick Smoke and the Soul of man between this Vapour and