Reas. 4.
4. From which matters of fact he thus concludeth: “By which (he saith) it is manifest, that solid bodies sufficiently great, have penetrated the Stomach, the Bowels, the Womb, the Caul, the lower Belly, the skin upon the inside of the Ribs, the Bladder, Membranes (he saith) impatient of so great a wound. That is to say, that Knives have been transmitted through these Membranes without wound, which is equivalent to the penetration of dimensions made in nature without the help of the Devil. And that an human body may be drawn through a small hole, through which a Cat might only pass, but not through a Wall. Verily that the Devil cannot break a paper Window without the consent of his Master, is (he saith) manifest by the process and arrest ofLudovicus Godfredusthe Witch, pronounced atAixinNarbona, the last ofApril 1611. I pray you where have the three pounds of brass, of the Cannon of War, marked with its letters, laid hid? how for so many months hath the dross shined, in what part was the piece of brass greater than the intestine contained? While I was (he saith) shewing a necessary vacuity in the air, I promised that I would declare, that although the penetration of bodies by the primary law of nature, and by the common way of Artificers be forbidden: notwithstanding that while a body doth totally pass over into the dominion of the spirit, and is carried over, and is by that as it were weakened; then bodies do naturally and mutually penetrate one another, at least in that part that is porous: Because that the spirit then doth inclose the body under it self, and therefore as it were taketh away the dimensions.”
Reas. 5.
Hist. 1.
5. And to confirm and open this point more fully, he saith: “I will premise some things. The desire of eating Muscles did invade a Woman with Child. And she eateth some of them so very hastily, that she did devour the raw shells, twice or thrice broken with her teeth. Thereupon by and by within an hour, she bringeth forth a sound and adult Child, with the same half-chewed shells, and wounded in the belly. Therefore the shells without the aperture of the membranes, had forthwith penetrated the Stomach, Womb and Secundines: or else there were new shells generated upon the young Child. Neither could this later be true. For they were the true fragments of the Muscles, and not figuratively framed to the imitation of them. Furthermore, the appetite is not carried to a thing unknown: Therefore the appetite of eating the Muscles was not of the Child, but of the Woman. Therefore it was not necessary that new Muscles should be generated about the Child; for they were desired by the Mother that they mightbecome nutriment to her, not the Child. Otherwise by the same argument of Identity, what things soever should by the appetite be desired, should be generated about the young Child; of whom when they could not be digested, they should be always either left remaining about the Child, or should there putrefie. Which is false both ways: for if it should putrefie, that which is desired would cause abortion; or if it were conserved there, it would be found regularly. For the Child is only nourished by the Navil: Therefore those external Muscles could neither be wished by the Child, nor could be profitable unto it, and by consequence, were neither for an end made anew, but sent to the young one by reason that it was an uterine appetite. The appetite is always directed from the end; but the Woman with Child desired the Muscles not the shells, neither that the Muscle being a living animal might remain in its former state, in which it was unprofitable to the Mother, nor could satisfie her appetite; and therefore much less hath had occasion of generating new and unprofitable shells about the young one. But however it be taken, the appetite was not to the shells twice or thrice broken. For if the Fishes had been taken forth of the shells, she had eaten the fish the shells being left. Therefore the concomitance and concision of the shells were accidental to the appetite. I suppose truly (he saith) that as the desire, terrour,&c.do generate seminal Idea’s, which the hand of the Woman with Child doth send down to the young one, and doth depinge or figurate it in a set time: So the joy of finding that which the appetite did desire, doth bring that very thing to the Child. So verily the heaviness of heart of him that swallowed the Knife, the horror of having drunk the Spider, and of the Ear of Barley devoured, did repel or drive back those things beyond the membranes not able to suffer a wound without death. And these things (he saith) of things injected, entring by the ordinary power of nature, without the suspicion of Diabolical cooperation.”
Reas. 6.
Hist. 1.
Hist. 2.
Hist. 3.
6. Now he proceedeth to prove penetration of dimensions by natural power in another way. “Something like to these (he saith) appeareth in things that from within are to without taken away, which I will dispatch (he saith) in one or two examples. The Wife of a Taylor ofMechlinia, seeth a Souldier before the doors to lose his hand in a conflict: Forthwith being stricken with horror, she brought forth a Daughter with one hand, the other awanting, with the stump all bloody, which hand of hers could not be found, and the flux of blood killed the Child. The Wife ofMarke de Vogeler, a Merchant ofAntwerpein the year 1602. seeing a Souldier begging whose right Arm an Iron Bullet in the Siege ofOstendhad taken away, and which he carried about as yet bloody; by and by after that she brought forth a Daughter wanting an Arm, and that the right one too, the shoulder of whom being yet bloody the Chirurgion ought to consolidate. She hathMarried to a Merchant ofAmsterdam, by nameHoochcamer; and is yet living this year 1638. But the right Arm was no where to be found, neither the bones or any corruption did appear, into which the Arm might be wasted in a little hour. But the Souldier not being seen, the Child had two Arms, neither could the Arm that was torn off be annihilated. Therefore the Womb being shut the Arm was taken away. But who tore it away naturally, and whither was it taken? certainly trivial reasons do not square or agree in so great a portent or Paradox. I am not he that will say these things. I will say this at the least: That the Arm was not taken away or torn off by Satan. Furthermore it was of less weight to carry away elsewhere the Arm torn off, than to have torn the Arm from the whole body without death. The Wife of a Merchant (he saith) known unto us, as soon as she heard that thirteen were to be beheaded (it happened atAntwerpein the time of the Duke ofAlva) and Women with Child are led with inordinate appetites, she determined to see the decollations. Thereupon she ascends the Chamber of a Widdow that was a familiar friend to her that lived in the Market-place. And the spectacle being seen, forthwith the pain of Child-birth took her, and she brought forth a full grown infant with a bloody neck, whose head did no where appear.”
Reas. 7.
7. From these most stupendious and almost incredible stories, he draweth these conclusions. “I do not find (he saith) that human nature doth abominate the penetration of dimensions, seeing it is most frequent to the seeds of things. For in the seeds of things, that primevous Energie of penetrating bodies, doth yet consist, but not subject to force, art or human arbitrement. For there are many bodies many times more ponderous than the matter of which they are framed. It is necessary (he saith) that more than fifteen parts of water do fall in together into one, that one part of gold may from thence be made. For weight is not made of nothing: but argueth the ponderating matter in the ballance. Therefore water doth naturally penetrate its body so often as the gold doth overweigh the water. Therefore the domestick and daily progress of seeds in Generations, doth require that the body doth penetrate it self by condensation, which is altogether impossible to an Artificer. We grant (he saith) that there are pores in the water, these notwithstanding cannot contain so much as fourteen times the quantity of its whole. Therefore it is ordinary, that some parts of the water do penetrate themselves into one place.”
Reas. 8.
8. And to illustrate this going before he saith: “By an example,Aqua fortisdoth by its spirit make Brass, Iron or Silver remaining opacous in their natures so transparent that they cannot be seen, and doth pass the metal thorough filtring paper, which otherwise will not transmit, no not the most small powder, which metal doth essentially remain still a metalin specieor kind. But not that the similitude of penetration of dimensions doth uniformlysquare with the propounded example of the metal. Because reasons do not agree to so great a Paradox, wherein (he saith) I willingly acknowledge the manner to be indemonstrableà priori.” Even as no man can know by what means the Idea impressed in the seeds doth figurate, direct, and dispose the things that it hath framed. And therefore we are forced to hunt forth the sameà posteriori.
Reas. 9.
9. From all which he draweth this Conclusion. “There is therefore another far different power of incantation, besides the Devils. And therefore natural and free. He hath no Dominion over the just. But if the power of inchanting were free to the Devil, also it would be equally free to him to kill by a Knife or a Maul. And so none should be free. Therefore the Witch (he saith) doth,per ens naturale, form imaginatively a free Idea, which is natural and noxious. Which Idea Satan cannot form. Because that the formation of Idea’s do require the Image of God and a free power: And therefore the Witches do operate by a natural force, no less against the just and innocent, than against wicked men. Seeing that inchantments do more easily infect Children than those of ripe age, sooner Women than stout Men: A certain natural power is signified to be limited to the inchantment, to which it is easily resisted by a stout and couragious mind. The Devil therefore offereth filth and poysons to his Clients, that he may knit fermentally Idea’s formed in the Imagination of the Witches unto them. And he preserveth that Ideal poyson, that it may not be blown away with the wind, or being covered in the earth, it be not destroyed by putrefaction. But he carrieth that poison locally near to the object, to be inchanted: But to apply it, or carry it into the man, he by no means is able. And therefore the Witch doth also send forth anotherexecutive medium, or mean emanative and commanding, which mean is the Idea of a strong desire. For it is inseparable to the desire to be carried about things wished for. To all which the Devil as a Spectator doth assist in the conduction.”
Reas. 10.
10. “For (he saith) in truth, I have demonstrated already, that operative means are solely in the power of man. For only God is the most chiefly glorious Creator, to be infinitely praised, who hath Created the Universe forth of nothing. But man as far forth as he is the Image of God doth forth of nothing create certainEntia rationis, ornon-Entities in their beginning, and that in the proper gift of the Phantastical virtue. Which are notwithstanding something more than meerly a privative or negative being. For first of all while these conceivedIdea’s do at length cloath themselves in the species or shape fabricated by the Imagination, they become Entities now subsisting in the middest of that Vestment, to which by the whole they are equally in them. And thus far they are made seminal and operative Entities: of which, to wit their assumed subjects are forthwith totally directed. But thispower is given to man alone. Otherwise a seminal power to propagate, is given to the Earth, to Bruits, Plants,&c.Also the Dog by his madness can transfer or change his spittle orsalivainto poyson, because it is peculiar to his kind or species. Which also is obvious in divers poysons of animals. But to form Idea’s abstracted from their species and adjacent proprieties, that is given to none but man.”
Having thus far at large traced his footsteps in these abstruse and mysterious matters, we shall come now to examine them and make some observations upon them. And although we may be sharply censured for taking upon us to question the things that he hath asserted, having beensuo graduan Adeptist, a person of profound judgment, great experience, general learning, high reputation, and now generally followed as the Chief Standard-bearer for Philosophy, Physick and Chymistry, that many esteem it no small glory to be called and accounted an Helmontian. Yet notwithstanding this we shall note some observations in this order.
Observ. 1.
De Incant.p.677.
1. He holdeth that the Devil doth only make the things invisible, or hides them by his spirit, and brings them near to the object into which they are to be injected, and that the Witch by the seminal Idea of her imagination, and the strength of her desire as the agent, or efficient cause, doth inject or thrust them into the body of the person, intended to be hurt or tormented; whereby he necessarily supposes a league or contract betwixt the Devil and the Witch, and therefore he calls them the Devils clients and those that are bound unto him. But what kind of contract this should be, explicite or implicite, internal and mental, or corporeal and visible, he tells us not; the latter of which we utterly deny, that it is in the power of the Devil to practise when he pleaseth, as we have before with sufficient arguments demonstrated at large. And for an implicite or mental league, we grant that all thieves, murderers, these kind of malicious and poysoning Witches and all other wicked persons are bound in a spiritual contract unto him: For he is the spirit thatworketh in the children of disobedience. And what wickedness soever he hath tempted and drawn them unto, to be willing to commit, he prompteth and pusheth them on with all his skill and power to perpetrate and execute the same. But still this is to be understood only of his spiritual and invisible assistance, and not of any visible or corporeal aid, for else (as this Author confesseth) he might as well kill with a knife or a maul. And therefore we cannot here pass by the bold and groundless (if not impious) assertion ofSennertus, who though a very learned person in diverse parts of humane literature, yet drawn with the sway of popular opinion, did most miserably lapse in affirming that although Witches do purpose to hurt men, yet “that they neither do nor can effect those things, but that the Witches being cast into a profound sleep, the Devil in the mean time acteth those things by himself; and thinks he proves this sufficiently by a fabulousand lying story feigned to be told of a Witch, that being in a deep sleep, when she waked, told that she had been transformed into a Wolf, and had torn in pieces a Cow and a Sheep,” which were found to be so, and therefore the Devil must needs have done it. But in this he neither nameth the place, time, nor Author to avouch it, and therefore all reasonable Men may judge how palpable a falsity it is, for then if true it would follow that none could be safe, and that the Devil might kill immediately with swords or knives, which he cannot do.
Observ. 2.
De Lithias.c.8.p.75.
Hist.
2. Whereas he holdeth that the Devil doth bring or convey the things to be injected near unto the place, and that he offereth filth and poysons to his clients, that thereby he may fermentally conjoin the Ideas of these formed in the imaginative faculty with these. If the Devil be taken to be meerly and simply incorporeal, then he cannot remove matter (as we have before proved) and so cannot convey the things near to the object; and if he be taken to be corporeal (as we have asserted) his help is needless, because the Witches may do it themselves, as we find sufficient stories of their hideing of strange and poysonous things under the thresholds of houses and Churches; and to this purpose this same Author telleth us this story: “A certain person (he saith) did by custome use to make water in a corner of the Court, whereupon he was afflicted with a bloody and cruel Strangury. And all the remedy of the Physicians proved in vain, except that as often as he did drink of Birch-Ale he did find a signal ease: But as oft as he rose and walked, and made water in the same place, so often his pains did return. At the last a pin of old black Oak-wood is espied to be fixed in the place where he used to make water. Which being pulled forth and burned he remained free from the bloody Strangury, by drinking Ale of Birchen-twiggs. Also (he saith) that he remembred, thatKarichterushad written that he had loosed such kind of inchantments by only pissing through Beesomes of Birch.” Now from hence it is plain that this making water constantly upon this pin of old black Oak-wood did cause his bloody Strangury, and that the pulling of it up and burning of it, was with the help of the Birchen Ale the cure; but it can no wayes be judged necessary that the Devil should fix the Oak pin there, but that the Witch might do it himself. Neither can it be thought to be any power given by the Devil to the Oaken pin, that it had not by nature, for in probability it will constantly by a natural power produce the same effect; only thus far the Devil had a hand in the action, to draw some wicked person to fix the pin there where the Man was accustomed to make water, thereby to hurt and torture him, and so was only evil in respect of the end.
Observ. 3.
3. We observe and affirm that whatsoever effects are brought to pass by that which is commonly called and accounted Witchcraft, if they be not brought to pass by jugling, confederacy, delusion and imposture (as the most of them are, if not all) thenthey are performed either by meer natural causes, or the strength of the Witches fancy, and most vehement desire of doing of mischief to those she hateth, or by both joined together, and that Satan is no further an author or actor, but as he leadeth and draweth the minds of the Witches to do such mischievous actions, and pusheth on to seek about to learn of others such secret poysons, charms, images and other hidden things, that being used so or so, may produce such destructive ends as their wicked and diabolical purposes are led to, and in this sense they are his clients, and bounden vassals, and not otherwise.
Observ. 4.
4. The stories that he relateth are either all to be taken to be true, or none of them; and if they be all alike equally to be credited, then it will undeniably follow, that they were all alike produced by natural causes, and so no need at all of the Devils assistance in performing of them, no more than by working upon the minds of such as used those natural means to a wicked and mischievous end. For first he giveth these instances of things that were very strange that were voided either by vomit or stool, by the ordinary power of nature, without suspicion of diabolical cooperation, as the voiding of the piece of the brass Cannon with its letters, with the Eele wrapped in its secundines: The Dragon that the Oxe voided by taking three herbs, with a tail like an Eele, a body like or of leather, with a Serpentine head, and not less than a Partridge: The knife that the Thieves forced a man to swallow, which he voided by an Apostume in the side, and was after sound: also the arrow head of three fingers broad strucken into the back, and after voided by stool, with diverse such which we recited before. And that these being solid bodies should have penetrated and passed through parts that are impatient of wounds, and in which a wound is mortal, must of necessity be very wonderful, and might as soon and upon as rational grounds be taken to be diabolical, as those that he enumerateth to be so: For from these it is manifest that either nature put to her last pinch doth make penetration of dimensions, or else so inlarge the pores, that those solid bodies may pass without wound, which (if seriously considered) is a stupendious operation and effect. And as there needeth no cooperation of a diabolical power, for the performing of these, no more needeth there any concurrence of Devils to the others, that to that purpose he relateth. Only here is all the difference: these are wrought by the ultimate endeavour of theArchæusto save life; without the concurrence of external causes; the others (that are therefore called diabolical) are commonly wrought for a bad end, namely to hurt or to take away life, and have an external cause, to wit, the force of the Witches imagination and strong desire of doing of mischief, which is stirred up to that end by Satan, and therefore in regard of the end are devilish, though they be both wrought by the agency of nature, the one in the body of the imaginant, the other in the body that the Witch intendeth to hurt by the force of herimagination and vehement desire, whereby a seminal Idea is created or formed, which is sufficiently operative to accomplish the end intended.
Observ. 5.
Syl. Syl.Cent.10.p.556.
5. The arguments that he bringeth to prove penetration of dimensions to be in nature, or something equivalent thereunto, seem to be strong and convincing. For in the generation of things, whosoever shall seriously and strictly mark, shall find (as he alledgeth) that the spirit of the Archeus (though not altogether incorporeal) doth in the seeds of things penetrate it self, and their parts one another, which he further maketh good by the instance of Gold generated of water; for it must of necessity be, that more than fifteen parts of water must fall in or penetrate one another, that from thence one part of Gold may be made, for weight is not of nothing, but argueth the matter ponderous in the Ballance. Therefore naturally the water must so oft penetrate its body as the Gold doth preponderate the water. And though it be granted that the water hath pores, yet notwithstanding it cannot contain so much as fourteen times, it whole. And therefore he irrefragably concludeth:Est ergo ordinarium in natura, quod aliquæ partes aquæ se penetrent in unicum locum. And this he backs with an unanswerable story of a Woman that longing for Muscles, did in greediness eat some of them with the shells twice or thrice broken with her teeth, and that she brought forth a child with the same half eaten shells, and a wound in the belly; therefore those shells had penetrated the stomach, womb and secundines, or otherwise the force of the Archeus had opened the pores and letten them pass in an unconceiveable manner. So that if these things be granted to be true (and we confess we know not how they can be answered) then there need no diabolical power be brought to solve the injecting of strange things into mens bodies, seeing nature is sufficient of it self, and therefore we can allow no power at all unto Devils in effecting these things (if they be truly done, and be not delusions) but only in drawing the minds of the Witches to these wicked and mischievous courses; and therefore the LordBaconsaid profoundly and wisely these words:Ut in operationibus illis earumq; causis error cavendus est, ita quoq; danda vel imprimis opera est, ne effecta nobis imponant, temere judicantibus talia esse, quæ eousq; nondum processerunt. Sic prudentes judices, præscripta velut norma, fidem haberi temere nolunt confessionibus sagarum, nec etiam factorum contra illas probationi. Sagas enim turbat imaginationis vertigo, ut putent se illud facere, quod non faciunt, populumq; hîc ludit credulitas, ut naturæ opera imputent fascino.
Observ. 6.
6. And to confirm this point he addeth far more stupendious matters of fact than the former, of things that were within, being taken to without or invisibly conveyed away, as the woman atMechlinthat saw the Souldier in a conflict lose his hand, and forthwith brought forth a Daughter wanting an hand, which was never found, and the wench died of the Hæmorrhage. AnotheratAntwerpeseeing a Souldier begging with his right arm shot off and bloody, forthwith brought forth a Daughter wanting the right arm whose bloody shoulder the Chirurgeon cured, and she was married after; and that the arm was never found, neither did there appear any bones or putrefied matter into which the arm might waste. Also another Woman going to see the Decollation of thirteen men; did soon after bring forth a mature Child with a bloody neck, the head no where appearing. I confess it would rack the judgment even of the most credulous to the highest pitch to believe these unparallel’d Stories; but the Author relating them as of his own knowledge, and being a person of unquestionable veracity, I cannot conceive how they can rationally be denied, especially finding MrBoyleto affirm, that in those experiments (much more relations of matters of fact) thatHelmontavouched upon his own knowledge, he durst be his Compurgator. Who would not believe but that these things could never have been done, but by a supernatural and Diabolical power, but that this Author (to which all judicious persons in reason may adhere) doth utterly deny, that the arm was either pull’d away or conveyed none can tell whither, by Satan, and therefore that in such a strange Paradox, trivial reasons are not to be allowed; and it were too much sloathfulness to ascribe all effects unto Satan, of which we are ignorant. And therefore if an hand, an arm, nay an whole head, could be separated from the rest of the body, and conveyed forth of the Womb by theArcheusor natural spirit, thereunto excited by the impression of horror and terror in the Women: In like manner by the same power of the natural spirit of man or woman, excited by a vehement and fierce imagination to revenge and to do mischief, may strange things be injected (if there can be any sound proof of such a matter of fact) into the bodies of such men or women as the Witches intend to do hurt unto, and yet Satan hath no more hand in it, but only as a spiritual agent to move the wills of those wicked and malicious people to do mischief unto those that they hate, though without cause. And the great secret of that which may be called Witching, is the learning of others, who likewise have had it by tradition, the great force of imagination, and the natural spirit with the ways and means how to excite it and exalt it; herein stands the mystery of all Magick, and it becomes only evil in the use and application, and they are to be condemned that use it to such devillish ends, even as those that use those good Creatures that nature doth produce to poysonous, wicked, and destructive purposes. And lastly, here we may note, that if things or bodies that are without may be injected into the bodies of others, by the force of exalted, imagination and a vehement desire, then the same power that doth inject them through skin, flesh and bones, must also be able to bring them near to the place, and need not at all the assistance of Satan, because it is far easier to carry them near the place, than to thrust them into the body; and so this Author hath here introduced theDevils aid to bring them to the place to no purpose, and never yet proved either by reason or matter of fact, that ever Satan did any such thing, and so is a meer supposition without proof.
Observ. 7.
De occult. nat. mirac.l.2.c.40.p.325.
De Tumor.l.6.c.19.p.158.
Hist.
7. The other matters of fact that he relateth are prodigious, and are brought to prove that Satan is an actor to convey these strange things into the bodies of men, and are these. A piece of an Oxe Hide taken forth of a mans Arm, so also thatEquuleum, a Wood-Horse, or a four-footed board with a wheel and ropes twice as broad as the gullet. Another that vomited up perhaps two thousand pins conglomerated together, with filth and hairs; another that vomited up, he being present, wooden Chips that had been cut off with the Hatchet in smoothing of wood, with much slime to the bigness of two fists, of which we shall note these Conclusions. 1. It doth no way appear (if these things be granted to be true, both for matter and manner) neither doth he offer to prove it, that these are any more than the former Diabolical, but only in the end, because they are for the hurt and destruction of mankind and not otherwise; and there being no proof of the Devils Cooperation any further but in working upon the minds of those that are agents and instruments to bring these things to pass, we may very well reject those things that are supposed, but not proved. 2. The ejecting or voiding of such strange things as here he hath related, doth not necessarily suppose their injection or thrusting in, because they may be bred there by natural Causes, so Worms of many sorts and strange Figures, also Frogs,Dracunculosand Askers have been voided, and doubtlesly bred there by natural causes, and were not injected or thrust in, and for proof of this I refer the Reader to the relations of learnedSchenchiuslib.3.p.363. of those strange sorts of Worms and other Creatures that he from divers Authors sheweth have been vomited up, which without all scruple, were not injected, but bred there. To confirm this and to prove what strange things are sometimes bred in Apostumes and Tumors, we shall translate a passage or two, and first take this fromLevinus Lemniusthat learned and famous Physician ofZeland, who writeth thus: “Also forth of sordid Ulcers and Impostures (he saith) we have known that the fragments of nails, hairs, shells, little bones and stones have been taken forth; which were concreted and grown together forth of putrid humours: As also little creatures, worms with tails, and little beasts of an unaccustomed form, cast up by vomiting, especially in those who were oppressed with contagious diseases, in whose urines I have often discerned to swim little Animalcles like to Pismires, or to those creatures we observe in the estival months to move in the celestial dew here inEnglandwe call it Woodsoar, or Cuckow-spittle.” Take another from that learned and expert ChirurgeonAmbrosius Paræuswhere he is speaking of strange tumors, in these words: “Also in these tumors being opened thou maist see bodies of all kinds, and far differing from the common matter of Tumors,as stones, chalk, sand, coals, cockles, ears of corn, hay, horn, hairs, flesh as well hard as spongious, grisles, bones and whole Animalcles, as well living as dead. The generation of which things (by the corruption and alteration of the humors) will not much astonish us, if we consider, that even as nature hath framed Man as a Microcosm forth of all the seeds and elements of the whole great world, that he might be as it were the lively image of that great world: So in that Microcosm, nature hath willed, that all the species of all motions and actions might be manifest, nature being never idle in us, as long as matter is not a wanting to work upon.” So that it is most plain that these strange things may be bred within, and so the opinion of injecting them, is but a meer figment. 3. Neither can the vomiting up of such strange things as he relateth, conclude necessarily that they were injected either by the power of Satan or the Witch, because they may be performed by jugling, sleight of hand, confederacy and the like, as was manifest in the Boy ofBilson, and diverse that we have known, that had made some numbers of others to believe that they had voided strange things, as pins, needles, crooked-knitting-pricks, moss, nails, and the like; but upon a strickt search, have but proved delusions and sleight, such as our commonHocus PocusMen use, when they make the people believe they swallow a long pudding of white tinn, and again pull it forth of their mouths, or in pulling ribbins, or laces of diverse colours forth of their throats. 4. And again the most of these relations are but commonly taken upon trust from the affirmations of the by-standers who might be confederate parties, or ignorant persons, and so easily deceived; and it appeareth not thatHelmontwas by at the very instant when the children vomited up the wooden horse, or four-footed board, but that it was the by-standers that drew it forth, who might be parties to the cheat, or be themselves deluded, and so aver it pertinaciously to others. For I have in my practice known a young Wench about 9 or 10 years old, who that she might be pittied and have an idle life, had made her Father and Mother believe that quick worms came forth at her ear, and also I taking her into mine own house she had perswaded all the family that it was true, and did often open her head-cloaths, and holding down her ear a quick worm would drop forth of the hair, who notwithstanding by diligent watching, was found out to get them privately from under stones or wood, and so did cunningly convey them into her hair, but being discovered, was by due correction reclaimed, and so the wonder ceased. And it is as common to mistake things, either by absolute judging them to be such a thing indeed, when it hath but some slender resemblance of it, or by judging a thing to be really so, because of such a name but metaphorically given unto it; so it is usual to call aCarcinomain the highest degreeLupusor a Wolf, because as a Wolf is a most voracious creature, so this ulcer is the most devouring of all others; andtherefore have we known after that such have been by incision eradicated by our selves and others, and exposed to the view of the vulgar people, they would presently most earnestly affirm to others that they had seen it, and that it was a living creature, and had mouth, eyes and ears; so far will ignorant mistake induce credulity.
Observ. 8.
Syl. Syl.Cent.10.p.583.
8. That the force of imagination accompanied with the passions of horror, fear, envy, malice, earnest, desire of revenge, and the like, is great upon the body imaginant, as also upon thefœtusin the womb, is acknowledged by all. But that it can at distance work upon another body, though denied byFienusand the whole rabble of the Schoolmen, yet is strongly proved by this learned Author, and allowed of by all others that truly understood the operations of nature, which we also take to be a certain truth, and do assert that if those people that are esteemed Witches, do really and truly (of which we utterly doubt) inject any of these strange things into the bodies of men, that they are brought to pass meerly by the imagination of the Witch, and the Devil acteth nothing in it at all, but the setting of his will upon that mischief. As for the handling the dispute concerning the manner of the injecting of these strange things, so strongly pursued by this Author,Sennertusand others, we shall totally supersede and suspend our judgment, until theὅτιbe sufficiently proved (which yet lies under water, and unseen) and then it will be time enough to dispute the manner, when the matter is certainly made evident. Therefore we will shut up this with that modest and grave advice of the LordBaconin these words:Ideo cogemur in hac inquisitione ad nova experimenta confugere; ubi directiones tantùm eorum præscribi possunt, non ulla positiva in medium adferri. Si quis putet subsistendum nobis fuisse, donec tentamentis res penitus innotuisset, (ut fecisse nos ubiq; probant alii tituli) sciat dubia nos fide amplecti quæcunq; imaginationis effecta circumferuntur, animum tamen esse illa per otium exigere ad Lydium veritatis lapidem, id est, experimentorum lucem.