Page:Deespirits.djvu/27

attaining of Truth) and ſo verſed in all kind of learning, that we ſhall ſcarce among all the learned of theſe later Times find another ſo generally accompliſhed. The ſtrangeſt relations that ever I read, or at leaſt as ſtrange as any I have read of Witches, and Sorcerers, and Spirits, I have read in him: ſuch as either upon his own knowledge he doth relate, or ſuch as he believed true upon the teſtimonie of others known unto him. The laſt work that he ever went about for the publick was, De generibus Divinationum, but he did not live (the more the pity) to make an end of it. But ſo much as he had done was ſet out by one of his learned ſons, Lipſiæ, an Dom 1576. There p 33. he hath theſe words, De Spirituum verò, quæ ſunt Græcis δαιμόνια admirabili non ſolum efficacitate, ſed maniſeſta Specie, quæ φάσματα perhibentur, præſentiâ; incredibiles extant paſsim veterum narrationes, & noſtris temporibus ſuper antia fidem comperta ſunt, extra etiam γοητουάς, de quibus poſteà dicetur. So p. 89. & p. 151. again and more fully. But his ſtrangeſt relations are in his Proemium to Plutarchs two Treatiles, De Defectu Oraculorum, and De Figura ΕΙ Conſecratâ Delphis, ſet out by him with Notes. Here I could come in with a whole cloud of witneſſes, name hundreds of men of all Nations and profeſſions that have lived within this laſt hundred years, and not any among them but ſuch as have had, and have yet generally the reputation of Honeſt, Sober, Learned and Judicious, who all have been of this opinion that we maintain. But becauſe we have to do with them eſpecially who by their Profeſſion pretend to the Knowledge of Nature above other men, I will confine my ſelf for further teſtimony to them that have been of that Profeſſion, I have been ſomewhat curious for one of my Calling, that had no other end but to attain to ſome Knowledge of Nature, without which a man may quickly be lead into manifold deluſions and Impoſtures. I have read ſome, looked into many I do not remember I have met with any profeſſed Phyſician or Naturaliſt (ſome one or two excepted, which have been or ſhall be named) who made any queſtion of theſe things. Sure I am, I have met with divers ſtrange relations in ſundry of them, of things that themſelves were preſent at, and ſaw with their own eyes, where they could have no end, that any man can probably ſuſpect, but to acknowledge the truth, though with ſome diſparagement to themſelves (according to the judgment of many) in the free confeſſion of their own ignorance and diſability to give reaſons, and to penetrate into cauſes. Well: what then ſhall we ſay to ſuch as Jul. Cæſar, Scaliger, Fernelius, Sennertus, the wonders and Oracles of their times? As Phyſicians ſo Phyloſophers, men of that profound wiſdom and experience (much improved in ſome of them by long life) as their writings ſhew them to have been to this day. What ſhall we make of them? or what do they make of themſelves, that will cenſure ſuch men as either cheaters or ignorant idiots? Henericus Saxonia, a Learned Profeſſor and Practiſer of Phyſick in Padua, in that Book he hath written of that horrible Polonian Diſeaſe, which he calls Plicam, which turneth mens hairs (in ſight) to Snakes and Serpents; in that book he doth aſcribe ſo much to the power of Witches and Sorcerers in cauſing Diſeaſes, not private only but even publick, as Peſtilences and the like, as himſelf confeſſeth he could never have believed, until hewas