Page:Deespirits.djvu/58

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The Preface.

quod Deus permittit. Aliquando apparent imaginarie ut in ungue pueri virginis carminati; & in pelvibus & ensibus, & in spathulâ arietis secundum modum eorum consecratis, & in cæteris rebus politii: Dæmores ostendunt eis omnia quæ petunt, secundum quod Deus permittit. Unde pueri sic inspicientes res politas vident imaginariè res furtivè acceptas ad quem locum deportata sunt, & quæ persone asportaverunt; & sic de aliis, multis, dæmones apparentes omnia hæc illis pejus ostendunt.

Joach. Camerarius (that worthy man before spoken of) in his Proemium to Plutarch, De Oraculis, &c. hath a strange Story upon the credit of a friend of his whom he much respected (as himself professeth) for his Piety and Wisdom. A Gentleman of Norimberg had a Crystal (how he came by it, is there to be read) which had this vertue; Si qua de re certior fieri vellet, &c. if he desired to know any thing past or future, that concerned him, yea, or any other (in most things) let a young Boy (Castum, one that was not yet of Age, &c.) look into it, he should first see a man in it, so and so apparelled and afterwards what he desired: No other but a Boy, so qualified, could see any thing in it. This Crystal became very famous in those parts; yea some learned men came to it to be satisfied in doubtful points, and had their questions resolved: Yet at last, (as well it deserved) it was broken in pieces by Camerarius his Friend. Many such stories are to be found of Magical Stones and Crystals: And though Fernelius, De abditis rerum causis; and after him (as I remember) one, in worth and esteem of all men, not inferior to Fernelius, Dr. Harvey, lately deceased, turns the relation of a strange stone brought to one of the late Kings of France, into an Allegory, or Physical explication of the power and proprieties of the Element of Fire; yet I am not satisfied, but that the relation might be literally true: For so it is, (as I remember here also, for I have none of those Books by me at this time) related by Thuanus, and so by some others, very learned, understood.

Now for the maner how he came by it, the particulars of the story cannot be had by this here preserved, but onely this in general, That it was brought unto him by some, whom he thought to be Angels: So we finde him telling the Emperor, That the Angels of God had brought to him a Stone of that value, that no earthly Kingdom is of that worthiness, as to be compared to the vertue or dignity thereof. Page 272. in his conference with Dr. Curts, appointed by the Emperor to treat with him; and also let him see the stone brought me by Angelical Ministery: And we finde this Note recorded, [Prague, Tuesday 25 Septembris, I went to Dinner to the Spanish Ambassador, and carried with me the Stone brought me by an Angel, and the fourth Book, wherein the maner of the bringing of it is expressed.] And for the use of the Stone, besides what hath been said, this is observable: Some Spirits being in sight of E. K. out of the Stone, Dr. Dee would have the Stone brought forth, but E. K. said, He had rather see them thus, out of the Stone; to which the Doctor replies, That in the Stone they had warrant that no wicked Spirits should enter; but without the Stone illuders might deal with them, unless God prevented it, &c. From which passage also we may learn, as from divers others in the Book that although the stone (as we said before) was the place, in which, and out of which, ordinarily, most Apparitions were framed, yet it was not so always: For we shall meetwith