THE COUNT OF GABALIS: OR, CONFERENCES ABOUT Secret Sciences.  
Rendered out of French into English.  
By A. L. A. M.  Quod tanto impendio absconditur, etian solummodo demonstrare destruere est Tertullian. 
LONDON, Printed by Tho. James for Robert Harford, at the Angel in Cornhill, near the Royal Exchange,   

The Count of GABALIS: OR, Conferenccs about Secret Sciences.  

The First Conference about Secret Sciences.  
PEACE be with the Soul of the Noble Count of GABALIS, who, as I am informed by Letter, died lately of an Apoplexy. The curious Heads, I know, will be sure to say that that is a common Death to those who are bad husbands of the Secrets of the Sages; and that ever since the blessed Raymond Lul pronounced the Sentence in his last will, his Executor an Angel is always ready to wring off the Neck of all those who indiscreetly reveal the Mysteries of Philosophers.  
But let them not be rash in condemning that Learned Man, without being clearly informed of his Conduct; It is true, he discovered all to me, but it was with all imaginable Cabalistick circumspection. This is a testimony due to the memory of him who was zealous in the Religion of his Fathers the Philosophers, and who would have burnt, rather than profaned its Sanctity, by opening his mind to any undeserving Prince, to any ambitious or incontinent Person; three sorts of People in all times excommunicated by the Sages. I have the good fortune not to be a Prince, I have but little Ambition, and it will appear in the sequel that I have even a little more Chastity than is requisite to a Philosopher: He found me of a docile mind, curious, and not easy startled I want but a little Melancholy to make all those who blame the Count of Gabal●s for having concealed nothing from me, acknowledge that I was a Suject proper enough for Secret Sciences. The truth is, without Melancholy no great progress can be made in them; but the little that I had, did not discourage him. You have (he has many times told me) Saturn in an Angle, in his House and retrograde; you cannot but one day be as Melancholy as a Sage aught to be; for the wisest of Men (as we know in the Cab●l) had, as you have, Jupiter in the Ascendant, and yet it is not known that ever he laughed in his life time; so powerful was the impression of his Saturn, though it was much weaker than yours.  
It is my Saturn then, and not the Count of Gabalis, that the curious Heads should quarrel with, if I like better to divulge than practice their Secrets. If the Stars fail in their duty, the Count of Gabalis is not in the fault; and if I have not that greatness of Soul, as to aspire to become Master of Nature, to overturn the Elements, to converse with supreme Intelligences, to command Sp●rits, to create New Worlds, to speak to God in his dreadful Throne, and to oblige the Cherubin that guards the entry of the Earthly Paradise, to let me fetch some walks in the Garden; I am the only Person that am most to be blamed: Men must not therefore insult over the memory of that rare Man, and say that he died, because he told me so many things. Is it impossible, but that he may have fallen in a Combat with some rugged Goblin, seeing the fortune of War is various? Perhaps talking to God in his inflamed Throne, he could not forbear to look in his Face: Now it is written, That no Man can see his Face and live. It may be he is only dead in appearance, according to the custom of Philosophers, who seem to die in one place and transport themselves to another. However the matter be, I cannot believe that the manner how he entrusted me with his Treasures, deserves any punishment. And now I'll tell ye how it happened:  
Common sense having made me always suspect that there was a great deal of emptiness in what they call, Secret Science, I was never tempted to cast away my time in turning over the Books that treat on them; but likewise thinking it unreasonable, without any ground, to condemn all others that apply themselves to that Study, who are otherways many times Discreet and Learned Men, and in repute both for the Gown and Sword; I thought it my best (that I might not be unjust, nor cumbered with tedious Study) to pretend myself smitten with all those Sciences, when I met with any that I could learn were touched with the same. I had at first better success than I could even have expected. For how mysteriously reserved soever these Blades affect to be, yet they desire no better than to vent their imaginations and the new discoveries that they pretend to have made in Nature; so that in a few days I became the confident of the chiefest of them: I never wanted one or other of them in my Study, which I had purposely furnished with their fantastical Authors. No Learned Stranger passed this way but I had notice of it; and in a word, in a very short time I wanted nothing, if ye'll except the Sciences, to make me a great Person, Princes, great Lords, Gownsmen, fair Ladies, and ugly ones too, Doctors, Prelates, Monks, Nuns, and all sorts of People were my Companions. Some were for Angels, some for the Devil; some for their Genius, some for Incubus'; some for the cure of all Diseases, some for the Stars, some for the Secrets of Divinity, and generally all for the Philosopher's Stone.  
They all agreed that those great Secrets, and especially the Philosopher's Stone, are hard to be found out, and that few possess them; but every one of them had so good an opinion of themselves 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 coming of a Germane Lord and great Cabalist, whose Lands lie towards the Frontiers of Poland: He promised, by Letter, to come and visit the Children of the Philosophers at Paris, and to pass from France into England, I was appointed to write an Answer to the Letter of that great Man, and therewith sent ●im the figure of my Nativity, that he might judge by it if I might aspire to supreme Wisdom. My Figure and Letter had the good fortune to procure the honour of this Answer from him, That I should be one of the first he would see at Paris, and that if Heaven opposed not, it should not be his fault if I were not admitted into the society of the Sages.  
That I might improve this happiness, I kept a regular correspondence with this illustrious Germane. Now and then I proposed to him great Doubts, backed with as much Reason as I could, concerning the Harmony of the World, the Numbers of Pythagoras, the Revelation of St. John, and the first Chapter of Genesis. The sumblimity of these matters ravished him, he wrote to me of strange and unheard of Wonders; and I well perceived that I had to do with a Man of a strong and vast Imagination I have about Three or four score of his Letters, of so extraordinary a stile, that whensoever I was alone in my Study, I could read nothing but them.  
One day as I was admiring one of the sublimest of them, a Man of an excellent meene entered my Study, who saluting me with Gravity, said to me in French, but with the accent of a str●nger: Adore, my Son, ad●re the great and good God of the Sages, and let it never puff you up with Pride, that he sends one of the Children of Wisdom, to receive you into their Society, and to impart to you the Wonders of his Omnipotence.  
I was a little astonished at the novelty of the Greeting, and began at first to doubt whether Men have not Apparitions sometimes: however re-assuring myself as well as I could, and looking on him with as much Civility as the little fear that I was in could allow of; Whoever you be, said I, you whose Compliment is not of this World, you do me much honour by this Visit; but do me the favour, if you please, that before I adore the God of the Sages, I may know what Sages you mean, and of what God you speak; if it be with your conveniency, take that Seat, and tell me what God, Sages, Secrecy, and Wonders of Omnipotence, are those you talk of; and first or last, as you please, to what sort of Creature I have the honour to speak.  
You receive me Sir very wisely (answered he laughing, and taking the Seat I offered him) You desire me at first to impart matters to you, which if you please, I shall not do too day. The Compliment I made you, are the words of the Sages, when first they accost those whom they have resolved to open their heart unto, and to discover their Mysteries. I thought that being so Learned, as you have appeared to me by your Letters, that Salutation would not have surprised you; and that it should have been the most acceptable Compliment that the Count of Gabalis could make you. Ah! Sir, cried I (calling to mind the great part I had to act) How shall I do to deserve so much goodness? Is it possible that the greatest of Men is now in my Study, and that the great Count of Gabalis honours me with a Visit?  
I am the least of Sages (replied he with a serious Countenance) and God who dispenses the Rays of his wisdom, with the weight and measure that best pleases his Majesty, has bestowed on me but a very small portion, in respect of that which with astonishment I admire in my Fellows. I am in hopes that you may one day equal them, if I dare judge so by the Figure of your Nativity, which you did me the honour to send me: But give me leave Sir (added he laughing) to blame you for having at first taken me for an Appartion.  
Ah! not for an Apparition (said I) but I confess, Sir, that calling to mind of a sudden, how Cardan reports that his Father was visited one day in his Study by seven Strangers clothed in different Colours, who discoursed to him very oddly of their Nature and Employment.— I understand you (said the Count, interrupting me) they were Sylphes, of whom I shall one day talk to you, who are a kind of aereal Substance, that come sometimes to consult the Sages about the Books of Averro, which they are not over-skilled in, Cardan was a Blockhead for publishing that in his Book of Subtleties; he f●und the Memoires amongst the Books of his Father, who was one of us, and who perceiving his Son to be naturally a blab tongue would not instruct him in any thing that was sublime, but let him only tamper and amuse himself with ordinary Astrology; by which he could not so much as foresee that his Son should be hanged. That Rogue is the cause you did me the wrong to take me for a Sylphe. Wrong (replied I) How, Sir, am I then so unhappy as .... that does not trouble me (said he, interrupting) you are not obliged to know that all those elementary Spirits are our Disciples, that they are too much honoured when we condescend to instruct them; and that the least of our Sages is more knowing and powerful than all these dandy prat Gentlemen. But we shall discourse of that another time; it is enough for too day that I have had the satisfaction to see you. Endeavonr my Son to become worthy of receiving the Cabalistick Light; the hour of your Regeneration is come; and you yourself must be in the fault if you become not a new Creature. Pray ardently to him who alone has the power of creating new Hearts, that he would ●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 Mysteries. With that he arose, and embracing me, without giving me time to answer, Farewell my Son (continued he) I must go see our Friends who are here at Paris, and when that is done you shall hear of me. In the mean time, Watch, pray, hope, and hold your peace.  
Having said so, he went out of my Study; and as I waited upon him out, I complained of the shortness of his Visit, and that he had the Cruelty to leave me so soon, after he had given me a glimpse of his extraordinary Knowledge. But having with very good Grace assured me that I should lose nothing by the delay, he took Coach, and left me in a surprise not to be expressed. I could not believe my Eyes or Ears; I am sure (said I) that this is a Man of great Quality, that he hath an Estate of Fifty thousand Livers a year; and appears otherways to be a very accomplished Person: Can he be gulled with th●se Follies? He has talked very gallantly to me of Sylphes. Is he in effect a Sorcerer, and have I been hitherto in a mistake, in believing that there were none? But likewise, if there be Sorcerers, are they as devote as this Man seems to be?  
I could not tell what to think of all this, yet I was resolved to see what it would come to, though I well foresaw that I should be baited with Sermons, and that the Familiar which pressed him was a great moralist and holder forth.   

The Second Conference about Secret Science.  
THe Count was willing to give me the whole night to spend in Prayer, and next morning by break of day he acquainted me by a Note that he would come to my House about Eight of the Clock, and that if I thought fit we should go abroad and take the Air together. He came according to his promise, and after mutual Civilities passed; Let us go (said he) to some place where we may be at liberty, and where our Conference may not be interrupted. Ruel, said I, seems to me both pleasant and solitary enough. Let us go thither then, replied he, so we took Coach, and on the way I carefully observed my new Master. I never remarked so great a stock of Satisfaction in any Man, as appeared in all his Carriage; he had a more sedate and composed mind, than a Sorcerer I thought could have. He had the aspect of a Man whose Conscience upbraided 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 else appeared to me so judicious and accomplished, could be deluded by the Visions with which I perceived him inf●●ted the day before. He talked Divinely of Policy, and was ravished to hear that I had read Plato on that Subject. You'll need all that one day (said he) more than now you are ware of; and if we fadge to day, it is not impossible but that in process of time you may have occasion to put in practice those Sage●-Maximes. With that we entered into Ruel, and went into the Garden; but the Count disdaining to admire the Beauties of the place, marched strait towards the Labyrinth.  
Perceiving that we were in as solitary a place as he could desire; I praise (cried he, lifting up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven) I prai●e the Eternal Wisdom, that he hath put it into my mind to conceal nothing from you of his ineffable Truth. How happy will you be, my Son! if he have the goodness to endue your Soul with the Dispositions that so high Mysteries require. You are now to learn how to command all Nature; God alone shall be your Master, and the Sages only your Peers. The supreme Intelligences shall think it their honour to obey your desires; the Devils shall not dare to appear where you are, your voice shall make them tremble in the pottomless Pit, and all the invisible People who inhabit the four Elements, will reckon themselves happy to be the Ministers of your Pleasures. I adore thee, O great God in that thou hast crowned Man with so much Glory, and made him Monarch over all the Works of thine Hands. Do you feel my Son (said he turning to me) do you feel that Heroic Ambition, which is a sure Character of the Children of Wisdom? Dare you desire to serve none but God alone, and to bear rule over every thing which is not God? Have you learned yet what it is to be Man? And is it not tedious to you to be a Slave; seeing you are born to be Sovereign? And if you entertain those noble thoughts, as the Figure of your Nativity suffers me not to doubt, Consider deliberately with yourself if you have the Courage and Resolution to renounce all things that may be a hindrance to you in attaining to that pitch of Elevation for which you are born? He stopped there, and fixed his Eyes upon me, as if he expected my Answer, or endeavoured to read it in my heart.  
How much the beginning of his Discourse made me hope that we should quickly come to the point, so much did his last words make me despair of it. The word Renounce starttled me, and I made no doubt but that he was going to propose to me the renouncing of my Baptism or Paradise. So not knowing which way to come off: Renounce Sir (said I) how! must I renounce any thing then? Without doubt you must (replied he) and that is so absolutely necessary, that it is the first thing you must do. I cannot tell if you can resolve to do it: But I know very well that Wisdom dwells not in a body subject to sin, as it enters not into a Soul prepossessed with error or malice. The Sages will never admit of you into their Society, if you renounce not one thing which is inconsistent with wisdom. You must (added he very softly, laying his Mouth to my Ear) renounce all Carnal dealing with Women.  
At that odd Proposition I burst forth in Laughter. You have let me go upon very easy terms; Sir (said I) I expected you should have proposed to me some strange Renunciation; but since all your Quarrel is with Women, the thing is done long ago: I am chaste enough, I thank God for it: Nevertheless Sir, since Solomon was a wiser Man than ever I shall be perhaps, and that all his Wisdom could not hinder him from being corrupted: Tell me, if you please, what Expedient do ye Gentlemen of the Cabal take to forgo that Sex; and what inconvenience would it be if in the Paradise of Philosophers every Adam should have his Eve.  
You ask great Matters (replied he) consulting with himself if he should Answer my Question) Nevertheless since I perceive that you will without difficulty renounce Women, I will tell you one of the Reasons which hath obliged the Sages to exact this condition from their Disciples; and by that you'll know in what Ignorance live all those who are not of our number.  
When you shall be listed among the Children of the Philosophers, and your Eyes fortified by the use of the most Sacred Medicine; you'll at first discover that the Elements are inhabited by most perfect Creatures, whom the sin of wretched Adam hath deprived his too wretched Posterity of the Knowledge of. This immense space which is betwixt the Earth and the Heavens, has far more noble Inhabitants than Birds and Gnats; those vast Seas have many other Guests besides Whales and Dolphins; the depth of the Earth is not made only for Moles; and the more noble Element of Fire was not created to remain void and useless.  
The Air is full of an innumerable multitude of People of Humane Shape, in appearance somewhat fierce, but in reality tractable; great lovers of Sciences, Subtle, Officious to the Sages, and the Enemies of the Foolish and Ignorant. Their Wives and Daughters are Masculine Beauties, such as they paint the Amazons. How Sir (cried I) would you make me believe that those Goblins are married?  
Startle not, my Son, at so small a matter (replied he) believe that what I tell you is a solid truth; these are but the Elements of the Ancient Cabal, and it shall be no Man's fault but your own if your own Eyes convince you not; but receive with a docile mind the Knowledge which God sends to you by my Ministry. Forget all that you may have learned of those things in the Schools of the Ignorant; for it will vex you, when you are convinced by experience, to be forced to confess that you have been wilful out of purpose.  
Hear me out then, and know that the Seas and Rivers are inhabited as well as the Air; the Ancient Sages named that kind of People, Vndians or Nymphs. They begat few Males, and Women abound amongst them; they are exceedingly Beautiful, and the Daughters of Men are not to be compared to them.  
The Earth is filled almost to the Centre with Gnomes, a People of a low Stature, the Guardians of Treasures, Mines and precious Stones. They are Ingenious, Friends to Man, and easy to be commanded. They supply the Children of the Sages with what Money they need, and desire no other Wages for their Service but the Glory of being commanded. The Gnom●des their Wives are little, but very pretty, and very curious in their .  
As to the Salamanders, the inflamed Inhabitants of the Fiery Region; they serve Philosophers, but are not solicitous to court their Company, and their Daughters and Wives suffer themselves rarely to be seen. They have reason (said I, interrupting him) and I excuse them from their appearance. Why? (said the Count) Why, Sir (replied I) and what have I to do to converse with so ugly a Beast as a Salamander, whether 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 Salamanders are Beautiful, and even more lovely than all the rest, seeing they are of a purer Element. I will not insist long in the description of those People, because you yourself shall see them easily and at leisure, if you have the curiosity. You shall see their Dress, their Diet, their Manners, Government, and admirable Laws. You will be more charmed with the Beauty of their Mind, than with that of their Body; but you cannot but pity these poor wretches, when they tell you that their Soul is mortal, and that they have no hopes to enjoy that Eternal Being which they know, and religiously adore. They'll tell you that being composed of the purest parts of the Elements which they inhabit, and having no contrary qualities in them, seeing they consist but of one Element; they live many Ages before they die; but what is time in comparison of Eternity? They must return again into the abyss of nothing. That thought afflicts them so much, that we have a hard ●ask of it to comfort them poor souls.  
Our Forefathers the Philosophers, speaking to God Face to Face, complained to him of the misery of those People; and God whose mercy is infinite revealed to them that it was not impossible to find a Remedy to that Evil. He informed them that in the same manner as Man by the Alliance that he hath contracted with God, has been partaker of Divini●y; so the Sy●phes, Gnomes, Nymphs, and Salamander's, by the Alliance which they m ght co tract with Man, may be made partakers of Immortality. Thus a Nymph or Sylphide becomes c●pable of Immortality, and of the Bliss to w●ich we aspire; when she is so happy as to be married to a Sage: and a Gnome or Sylphe ceases to be mortal so soon as ever he espous●s one of our Daughters.  
From thence spring the Error of the first Ages, of Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Lactantius, Cyprian, Cl●m●nt of Al●xandria Athenagoras, a Christian Philosopher and generally of all the Writers of that Age. They learned that those elementary half men courted the Commerce of Maids; and from that they imagined that the Fall of the Angels was occasioned only, by the love which they entertained for Women. Some Gnomes desirous of immortality, courted the Favour of our Daughters, and brought them precious Stones, whereof they are naturally the Guardians: And these Authors thought, grounding their opinion on the Book of Enoch, not rightly understood, that those were the Snares which the Amorous Angels laid for our Women. In the beginning these Children of Heaven begot famous Giants on the Daughters of Men, who fell in love with them▪ And the bad Cabalists, Josephus and Philo (as all the Jews are ignorant) and after them the Authors whom I just now named, as well as Origen and Macrobius, have affirmed they were Angels, not knowing that they were Sylphes and other Elementary People, who by the name of the Children of Eloim, are distinguished from the Children of Men. In like manner, that which the wise Augustin had the modesty not to decide, in relation to the Addresses which those who were called Fauns or Satyrs, made to the Africans of his time; is cleared by what I have said of the desire that all those Inhabitants of the Elements have to be allied with Men, as the only means to attain to the Immortality which they want.  
Ah! our Sages are far from imputing the Fall of the first Angels to the love of Women, no more than they submit Men so much to the power of Devils, as to ascribe to him the adventures of Nymphs and Sylphes, wherewith all Histories abound. There was never any Crime in that Matter; it was only Sylphes endeavouring to become Immortal. Their innocent Pursuits are so far from scandalising Philosophers, that they have appeared to us so just, that we have all with one consent resolved to give ourselves to no other Pleasure but the immortalising of Nymphs and Sylphides.  
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 Felicity of Philosophers! Instead of Women, whose frail Charms are quickly over, and are followed with ghastly Wrinkles, the Sages enjoy Beauties that never grow old, and whom they have the Glory to render immortal. Reflect on the Love and Gratitude of those invisible Mistresses: and with what eagerness they desire to please the Philosopher, who applies himself to procure them Immortality.  
Ah! Sir, I renounce (cried I once more.) Yes my Son (continued he again, without giving me leave to make an end) renounce the vain and perishing pleasures that are found amongst Women; the Fairest of them looks Ghastly, when compared to the meanest Sylphide: our Sage Embraces are never dogged with any the least distaste. Miserable Ignorants, how much are ye to be pitied, that ye cannot taste of Philosophical Delights.  
And miserable Count of Gabalis (said I with a tone made up of Anger and Compassion) let me at length tell you, that I renounce that distracted Wisdom; that your Visionary Philosophy seems to me ridiculous, that I detest these abobominable Embraces that couple you to Sprights; and that I shake for fear, lest one or other of your pretended Sylphides hasten to carry you to Hell in the midst of your transports; for fear that such a worthy Gentleman as you are, should at length perceive the folly of that fantastical Zeal, and repent of so heinous a Crime.  
Ho, ho (answered he, starting three or four steps back, and looking on me angrily) a Curse on that untractable Spirit of thine. I confess his Carriage put me into a fright, but it was far worse, when I saw, that drawing aside, he pulled a Paper out of his Pocket, which I perceived at a distance to be full of Characters that I could not well discern. He read attentively, pelted and muttered to himself. I thought he was a raising some Spirits to destroy me, and repent a little of my inconsiderate Zeal. If I come off well at this bout (said I) I'll never fear Cabalist more. I had fixed mine Eyes steadfastly upon him, as upon a Judge that was going to sentence me to death; when I perceived his Countenance clear up again. It is hard for you (said he laughing, and returning towards me) it is hard for you to kick against pricks, you are a Vessel of Election. Heaven has destined you for the greatest Cabalist of your Age. Here is the Figure of your Nativity, that cannot fail, if it happen not presently and by my means, it will be when your Retrograde Saturn shall think fit.  
Nay, God Sir, If it be my luck to become a Sage (said I) no Man, I assure you shall ever have a hand in it, except the great Gabalis; but to speak freely, I am somewhat afraid you'll find it no easy task, to persuade me to this Philosophic Gallantry. Is it then, because you are so bad a Naturalist (replied he) as not to believe the Existence of these People? I cannot tell (said I) but I am still of opinion that they are but Goblins in disguise. Will you still give greater credit to your Nurse (answered he) than to Natural Reason; than to Plato, Pythagoras, Celsus, Psellus, Proclus, Porphyrius, Jamblichus, Plotinus, Trismegistus, Noll us, Dorneus, Fluddus, than to the great Philippus Aurelius Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus of Honeinhem; and all the rest of our Companions?  
I'll believe you Sir (said I) as much and more than all these Blades: But dear Sir, cannot you so order matters with your Brethren, that I be not obliged to melt away in love with these Elementary Lasses? Alas! (replied he) you are at your liberty, no Man is forced to love; but though few of the Sages are proof against their Charms, yet there have been some, who reserving themselves wholly to greater Matters (as you shall know hereafter) have denied that honour to Nymphs. I'll be one of those then (answered I) for indeed I cannot bring myself to a resolution to lose time in using of the Ceremonies, which as I have heard a Prelate say, are necessary for obtaining the Commerce of those Spirits. That Prelate knew not what he said (replied the Count) for you shall one day see that they are not Spirits; and besides, never did a Sage use either Ceremonies or Superstition, for gaining the Familiarity of Spirits, nor of the People of whom we speak.  
A Cabalist never acts but by Natural Principles; and if in our Books there be sometimes hard Words, Characters and Fumigations to be found; that is only to hid from the ignorant the Principles of Nature. Admire the simplicity of Nature in all her most wonderful Operations! and in that simplicity so great, so exact, and necessary an Harmony, that in spite of your Prejudices it will cure you of your weak Apprehensions. What I am about to tell you, we teach those of our Disciples, whom we suffer not to enter into the innermost Sanctuary of Nature; and yet will not deprive of the Society of the Elementary People, out of compassion that we have for the same People.  
The Salamanders, as you perhaps already conceive, are composed of the most subtle parts of the Sphere of Fire, conglobated and organised, by the influence of the universal Fire (of which some time or other I will discourse to you) so called, because it is the principle of all the Motions of Nature. In the same manner the Sylphs are composed of the purest atoms of Air, the Nymphs of the thinnest particles of Water; and the Gnomes of the subtlest parts of the Earth. Adam bore some proportion with these so perfect Creatures, because being made up of the purest part of the four Elements; he contained in himself the perfections of these four kinds of People, and was their Natural King. But when sin had precipitated him among the Excrements of the Elements (as you shall see some other time) the Harmony was untuned, and becoming gross and impure, he bore no more proportion with those so pure and subtle Substances. What remedy to this evil? How is the Lute to be tuned again, and this lost Sovereignty retrived? O Nature! Why art thou so little studied? Do not you conceive, my Son, with what simplicity Nature can restore Man to the Blessings which he hath lost?  
Alas! Sir (replied I) I am very ignorant in all these simplicities. But it is very easy however to be knowing in them (answered he.)  
If we would recover the Empire over the Salamanders, we must purify and exalt the Element of Fire that is in us, and raise again the tone of that slackened String. There is no more to be done, but to concentrate the Fire of the World by concave mirrors in a Bowl of Glass; and this is the Operation which all the Ancients have religiously concealed, until Divine Theophrastus revealed it In that Bowl there is a Solary Powder made, which being of itself purified from the mixture of other Elements; and being prepared according to Art, becomes in a very short time a Sovereign Remedy to exalt the Fire that is in us; and to ●●ke us (if one may say so) become of an igneous Nature. Then do the Inhabitants of the Sphere of Fire become our inferiors, and ravished to see our mutual Harmony restored, and that we are become like to them, they have the same love and friendship for us that they have for their own kind; all the respect which they own to the Image and Vicegerent of their Creator, and all the care, that the desire of obtaining the immortality which they want, by our means, can make them excogitate. The truth is, as being more subtle and pure than those of the other Elements, they live very long; so they are not so solicitous in demanding Immortality from the Sages. You may make use of one of those, my Son, if the aversion you talk of last always: probably you shall never hear her speak one word of that which you are so much afraid of.  
The ease is not the same with the Sylphs, Gnomes, and Nymphs, for seeing, as being shorter lived, they stand more in need of us; so their Familiarity is more easily obtained. There is no more to be done for 〈◊〉, but to stop a bottle full of conglobated Air, Water, or Earth, and set it for a month in the Sun; and then to separate the Elements according to Art, which above all is most easy to be done in the Water and Earth. It is wonder, what a strange Loadstone each of these Elements purified are, to attract Nymphs, Sylphes, and Gnomes. As little almost as nothing taken of it daily for the space of some months, will let you see in the Air the republic volant of Sylphs; the Nymphs coming in crowds to the Shore; and the Guardians of Treasure opening Shop and laying out their Wealth. So that without Characters, Ceremonies, and barbarous Words, one becomes absolute over all those People. They demand no Worship from a Sage whom they know to be nobler than themselves. Thus venerable Nature teaches her Children to repair the Elements by the Elements. Thus is Harmony restored. Thus does Man recover his Natural Empire, and can do all things in the Elements, without the Devil or black Art: You see now, my Son, that the Sages are more in●●cent than you imagine. What do you say?  
I admire you, Sir, (said I) and I begin to fear that you will make me turn Apothecary. Ah! God forbidden, my Child (cried he) your Nativity has not destined you for such trifles. On the contrary, I discharge you to trouble your Head about distilling; I have told you that the Sages teach such things only to those whom they will not admit into their Society. You shall have all these advantages, and many others more glorious and agreeable, by Philosophic Procedures of a far different Nature. I have on●y told you of these ways, that I might let you see the innocence of this Philosophy, and cure you of your panic fears.  
Thanks be to God, Sir (answered I) my fear is not so great now, as it was a while ago; and though I be not as yet resolved to embrace the offer that you proposed to me with the Salamanders: yet I have still the curiosity to be informed, how you have learned that these Nymphs and Sylphs do die? In troth (replied he) they tell us so, and we see them die. How can you see them die (said I) since your Commerce renders them immortal. You had said somewhat (answered he) if the Sages were as many in number as those People are; besides, a great many of them had rather die than to run the risk of being as miserable as they see the Devils are, by endeavouring to attain to Immortality. It is the Devil that puts these thoughts into the●r Heads, for he does all he can to hinder these poor Creatures from becoming Immortal by our Alliance. So that I look, and you ought my Son, to look upon the Aversion which you have to it, as a most pernicious temptation and uncharitable inclination.  
But further, as to the Death you have been speaking of, What was it that obliged the Oracle of Apollo to say, That all who spoke in Oracles were dead as well as himself; as Porphiry reports? And what meant that voice, d'ye think, which was heard over all the Coasts of Italy, and so terrified those that were at Sea? The great Pan is dead. It was the People of the Air, who gave advice to the People of the Water, t●at the Chief and most Aged of the Sylphes was just then expired.  
When that voice was heard (said I) I think the World adored Pan and the Nymphs. These Gentlemen then, whose Commerce you preach to me, were the Pagan Gods?  
It is true, my Son (replied he) the Sages are far from thinking that the Devil had ever the power to make himself be adored; he is too miserable and weak ever to have had that Satisfaction and Authority: but he may have persuaded those Guests 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 possess; they troubled the Air and Sea, shook the Earth, and sent Thunder and Lightning at their pleasure: insomuch that it was easy for them to be taken for Deities, so long as the Supreme 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 pass by that, that Pan, the Nymphs, and other Elementary People, having found a means to change that commerce of Worship into a commerce of Love (for you remember th●t among the Ancients, Pan was the King of those Gods, who were called Incubus', and made love to Maids) many of the Pagans escaped the snares of the Devil; and shall not burn in Hell Flames.  
I understood you not, Sir (said I.) You will not understand me (continued he in a jeering tone and smiling) this is above your reach, and indeed surpasses the reach of all your Doctors, who know not what true Natural Philosophy means. I'll tell you the great Mystery of all that part of Philosophy which concerns the Elements, and which (if you love yourself) will certainly remove that so unphilosophical repugnancy which you have testified to me this very day. Know then, my Son, and divulge not this great Arcanum to any ●nworthy ignorant▪ Know that as the Sylphs acquire Immortalily, by an Alliance which they contract with Men who are predestinated; even so Men, who have no right to Eternal Glory; those Wretches to whom Immortality is but a fatal advantage; for whom the Messiah was not sent .....  
Hold, hold, ye Gentlemen of the Cabal are Calvinists and Presbiterians then? (said I interrupting him.) We know not what that means, my Child (replied he briskly) and we scorn to inform ourselves about the differences of Sects and Religions, with which the ignorant are infatuated. We stick to the Ancient R●ligi●●n of our Forefathers the Philosophers, wherein I must needs sometime or other instruct you. But to return to the purpose, those Men whose sad Immortality will prove but everlasting mis●ry; those accursed Children whom the supreme Father hath forsaken, have this relief still, that they may become Mortal, by matching with Elementary People. So that you see that the Sages hazard nothing for Eternity; if they are predestinate, they have the Satisfaction, when they leave the Body, to carry to Heaven with them the ●ylphide or Nymph whom they have immortalised; and if they are not predestinate, the Commerce of the Sylphide renders their Soul mortal, and delivers them from the horrors of the second Death. Thus all the Nymphs, who were allied with the Pagans, escaped the Clutches of the Devil, Thus the Sages, or the Friends of the Wise, to whom God puts it in our hearts to communicate any of the four Elementary Secrets (which I have pretty near discovered to you) free themselves from the danger of damnation.  
In sober sadness, Sir (cried I, not daring to put him out of humour again, and judging it fit to forbear telling him openly my thoughts, until that he had discovered to me all the Secrets of his Cabal; which by that pattern I concluded must needs be very odd and pleasant) In sober sadness, you carry Wisdom very far! and you had reason to say that it would surpass the reach of all our Doctors. I am truly of opinion that this is also above the reach of all our Magistrates: and that if they could find out who they are that make their escape from the Devil by this means (as ignorance is always unjust) they would take the Devils part against those Fugitives, and trunch them severely.  
And it is for that reason (replied the Count) that I have recommended, and do religiously recommend to you Secrecy. Your Judges are strange Men! they condemn a most innocent Action as a most heinous Crime. What barbarity? to cause burn those two Priests whom the Prince of Mirandula says he knew; each of whom had his Sylphide for the space of forty years! What inhumanity was it to have put to death Jean Hervillier, who for the space of thirty six years, laboured in the immortalising of a Gnome! And how ignorant was Bodinus, to call her a Witch; and to take occasion from her adventure, to authorise the vulgar Fancies concerning Sorcerers; by a Book no less impertinent than that of his Republic is rational.  
But it is late, and I consider not that you have not as yet eaten any thing. You speak for yourself, Sir (said 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 Philosophy is. The Sages eat only for pleasure, and never f●r necessity. I had a quite different Notion of Wisdom (answered I) I thought that a Sage ought not to eat but to satisfy necessity. You a-abuse yourself (said the Count) how long d'ye think our Sages can hold out without eating? What can I tell (said I) Moses and El●as fasted forty days, your Sages without doubt come some few days short of them. A mighty matter indeed (replied he) the wisest Man that ever was, the divine and almost adorable Paracelsus, assures us that he has seen a great many Sages, who have spent twenty years without eating the least thing imaginable. He himself, before he attained to the Monarchy of Wisdom, whereof we have justly given him the Sceptre; lived several years without taking any thing but half a Scruple of Solar Quintessence. And if you would have the pleasure 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 Gnomes. That Earth being applied to the Navel, and renewed when it is too dry, makes one without the least trouble, dispense with eating and drinking: as the Candid Paracelsus affirms he had the experience for the space of six Months.  
But the use of the Catholic Cabalistick Medicine frees us much better from the troublesome necessities, to which Nature subjects the Ignorant. We eat but when we please, and all the superfluity of our Victuals evanishing by insensible transpiration, we are never ashamed 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 slight Bait, according to the custom of the Hero's of Philosophy.   

The Third Conference about Secret Sciences.  
After Dinner we returned to the Labyrinth. I was pensive, and the pity that I had of the Count's Extravagancy, which I perceived would be very hard for me to cure, suffered me not to divert myself with what he had said, so much as I would have done, ●f there had been any hopes of bring●ng him to his Wits. I ransancked Antiquity to find some Objection which he could not answer; for to allege the Opinions of the Church to him, was in vain, seeing he told me that he adhered only to the Ancient Religion of his Forefathers the Philosophers; and to attempt to convince a Cabalist by reason, was a long and tedious task: and besides, I had no mind to dispute against a Man whose Principles as yet were not altogether known to me.  
It came into my mind, that what he had told me of the false Gods, to whom he substituted Sylphs and other Elementary People, might be refuted by the Pagan Oracles, which the Scripture calls in all places Devils and not Sylphs. But seeing I knew not whether in the Principles of the Cabal the Count would not attribute the Responses of the Oracles to some Natural Cause, I thought it pertinent first to know what his thoughts were as to that.  
He gave me occasion to engage him in the Subject; for turning towards the Garden, before we entered the Labyrinth; This Garden looks very well (said he) and these statuas make a fair Show. The Cardinal (answered I) who caused them to be brought hither, entertained a fancy that suited ill with his great Parts. He thought that most of those Sta●ua's rendered heretofore Oracles: and upon that he paid very dear for them. That is the infirmity of many People (replied the Count) Ignorance produces daily a kind of most Criminal Idolatry; seeing with so much care Men preserve and preciously esteem the Idols which they believe the Devil heretofore made use of to make himself be adored. Good God will it never be known in the World that from the beginning of all Ages thou hast made thine Enemies thy Footstool; and that thou holdest the Devil's Prisoners under Chains of Darkness? That blame-worthy curiosity of making Collections of those pretended Organs of the Devils, might become innocent, my Son, if Men would be persuaded, that Angels of Darkness were never suffered to speak in Oracles.  
I do not think (said I interrupting him) that this Doctrine would easily pass amongst the curious; but perhaps it might among the Wits. For it was lately decided in a Conference held purposely on that Subject, by the Wits of the first rank, that all the pretended Oracles were but Tricks of the covetous Heathenish Priests, or an Artifice of the State-Policy of Princes.  
Was it (said the Count) the Mahometans that were sent in Embassy to your King, who held that Conference; and so decided that Question? No, Sir (answered I.) What Religion were those Gentlemen of then (replied he) seeing they make no account of Sacred Scripture, which in so many places makes mention of so many different Oracles? and especially of the Python's, who had their Residence, and rendered their Responses in the parts appointed for the multiplication of the Image of God? I spoke (answered I) of all those Bellytalkers, and I instanced to the Company that King Saul banished them his Kingdom, where nevertheless he still found one the night before he died; whose Voice had the wonderful power to raise Samuel at his desire, and for his Ruin. But these Learned Men, for all that, denied absolutely that there were ever any Oracles.  
If Scripture had no influence upon them (said the Count) they should have been convinced by all Antiquity; wherein it was easy to have showed them a thousand miraculous instances. So many Virgin's with-child of the destiny of Mortals, who were delivered of the good or bad hap of those that consulted them. Why don't ye allege Chrysostom, Origen, and Oecumenius? who make mention of those Divine Men, whom the Greeks called Engastrimandres, whose Prophetic Bellies articulated so famous Oracles. And if your Blades care neither for the Scripture nor the Fathers, they are to be convinced by those miraculous Maids, who transformed themselves into Doves, and under that shape rendered the famous Oracles of Dodo●a's Doves. Or you may say, to the Glory of your Nation, that ●here have been heretofore in Gallia, illustrious Maids, who metamorphosed themselves into all Figures, at the pleasure of those who consulted them; ●nd who besides the famous Oracles which they rendered, had a wonderful Empire over the Floods, and a salutary Authority over the most Incurable Diseases.  
They would have termed all these fair proofs Apocryphal (said I.) What, does Antiquity render them suspected? (replied he) you might then have alleged to them the Oracles which are daily rendered. And where in all the World? (said I.) At Paris (answered h e.) At Paris! (cried I.) Yes at Paris (continued he.) Are you a Master in Israel and know not that? Do not Men daily consult Aquatic Oracles in Water-glasses or Basins; and Aereal Oracles in Looking-glasses, and on the Hands of Virgins? Are not lost Beads and stolen Watches thus recovered? Do not they likewise hear News from distant Countries, and see absent Friends? Alas! Sir, Why do you tell me of those things (said I.) I tell you (replied he) what I am sure happens daily, and which might be easily proved by a thousand Eye-witnesses. I don't believe that Sir (said I) the Magistrates would make an Example of such an Action and would not suffer Idolatry ..... How quick you are! (said the Count interrupting me.) There is not so much hurt in that, as you imagine; and Providence will never permit that Remnant of Philosophy, which hath escaped the lamentable Shipwreck that Truth hath made, to be extirpated. If there still remain among the People some footstep of the dreadful power of Divine Names, are you of the opinion that it should be extirpated? And that Men should lose the respect and veneration which is due to the great Name AGLA, that worketh all these Wonders, even when it is invoked by the Ignorant and Sinners; and which would produce Wonders of another Nature in a Cabalistick Mouth? If you would have convinced those Gentlemen of the truth of Oracles; you needed but to have exalted your Imagination and Faith, and turning towards the East, cried with a loud voice AGNOSTUS ..... Hold, good Sir (said I) I would have been very loath to have made such a kind of Argument to so worthy Gentlemen as I was with; they would have taken me for a Fanatic: for assuredly they believe not a word of all that: and though I had known the Cabalistick Operation you speak of, it would not have succeeded in my Mouth; for I have less Faith than they. Well, well (said the Count) if you have none, we shall procure you some. However, if you thought that your Gentlemen would not have believed what they may daily see at Paris, you might have cited to them a story of very fresh date: The Oracle which Celius Rhodiginus says himself saw, about the end of the last Age, rendered by that extraordinary Man, who spoke; and foretell things to come by the same Organ as Eurycles in Plutarch did. I would not cite Rhodiginus (answered I) it would have been a Pedantic Quotation, and besides, they would not have failed to have told me that that Man was possessed.  
That would have been said most Monkishly (replied he.) Sir (said I, interrupting him) for all the Cabalistick Aversion which I perceive you have to Monks, I cannot but be on their side in this particular. I think it may be more safely denied that ever there was any Oracle, than to deny that the Devil spoke in them: For in fine, the Fathers and Divines .... For in fine (said he, interrupting me▪) do not Divines agree that the Learned Sambethe the oldest of the S●byles was the Daughter of Noah? Puh! what of all that (replied I.) Does not Plutarch (answered he) say that the most Ancient Sibyl was the first that rendered Oracles at Delphos? That Spirit which Sambethe lodged in her Breast was not then at Devil, nor her Apollo a false god; seeing Idolatry did not begin till long after the Division of Tongues: and it would be very unlikely to attribute the Sacred Books of the Sibyls, 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 smiling) it is not your part, to dissolve the Marriage which a great Cardinal made betwixt David and Sybllia; nor to accuse that Learned Man of having unequally yoked a great Prophet and an accursed Sorceress together. For either David confirms the Evidence of the Sibyl, or the Sibyl weakens the Authority of David. I pray you Sir (said I, interrupting him) to the point again and be serious.  
With all my heart (said he) on condition you will not accuse me of being too serious. Is the Devil, in your opinion, ever divided against himself? And does he at any time act against his own Interests? Why not (said I.) Why not? (said he) because he whom Tertullian so happily and magnificently calls the Reason of God, thinks it not proper. Satan is never divided against Satan. It follows then, That either the Devil never spoke in Oracles, or that he hath never spoke against his Interest. It follows then, that if the Oracles have spoken against the interests of the Devil, it was not the Devil that spoke in the Oracles. But could not God have forced the Devil (said I) to give testimony to the Truth, and to speak against himself? But (replied he) if God hath not forced him. Ah! in that case (said I) you'll have more reason than the Monks.  
Let us see then, continued he, and that we may proceed invincibly and with sincerity; I will not adduce the testimonies of the Oracles which the Fathers of the Church cite; though I be persuaded of the veneration which you have for these great Men. Their Religion and the Interest which they had in the Matter, might have prejudiced them, and their love to the truth might have so prevailed with them, that perceiving it poor and naked in their Age, they might have borrowed some Clothing and Ornament for it from Falsehood itself: They were Men, and by consequence might, according to the Maxim of the Prophet of the Synagogue, have been unfaithful Witnesses.  
I will take then a Man, who cannot be suspected in this Cause: A Pagan, and a Pagan of another kind than Lacian, or the Epicureans; a Pagan infatuated (as he is) with Gods and Devils without number, beyond measure superstitious, a great Magician, or pretending so to be; and by consequence a great favourer of Devils, it is Porphyrius. Here are some of the Oracles which he reports word for word.  
ORACLE.  
ABove the Celestial Fire there is an incorruptible, ever sparkling Flame, the Source of Life, the Fountain of all Stars, and the Principle of all Things. That Flame produces every thing, and nothing perishes but what it consumes. It makes itself known by itself; this Fire can be contained in no place; it is without body and matter; it incompasses 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 wise soever thou mayst be. Know moreover, that an unjust and wicked Man cannot be hid from God. Neither cunning nor excuse can conceal any thing from his piercing Eyes. All is filled with God; God is every where.  
You well perceive (my Son) that this Oracle looks not too much like the Devil. At least (answered I) the Devil steps a little out of his road in it. Here is another (said he) which preaches still better.  
ORACLE.  
THere is in God an immense depth of Flame; yet the Heart of Man should not fear to touch that adorable Fire, nor to be touched by it; it shall not be consumed by that so gentle Fire, the mild and peaceable heat whereof causes the Conjunction, Harmony, and Duration of the World. Nothing subsists but by this Fire, which is God himself. He is not begotten, he has no Mother, he knows all things, and can be taught nothing; he is immutable in his purposes, and his Name is ineffable, this is God; for as for us, who are his Messengers, we are but a little particle of God.  
Well now! What say you to this? I say of both (answered I) that God can force the Father of Lies to give testimony to the Truth. Come here is a third (replied the Count) that will remove your Scruple.  
ALas Tripodes! Weep, and make the Funeral Oration of your Apollo; he is mortal, he is going to die. He extinguisheth, because the Light of the Celestial Flame makes him extinct.  
You well perceive (my Child) that whoever he be that speaks in these Oracles, and who so well explains to Pagans the Essence, Unity, Immmensity, and Eternity of God; he confesses that he is Mortal, and that he is but a spark of God. It is not then the Devil that speaks, because he is Immortal, and God would not force him to say that he is not so. It is agreed that Satan is not divided against himiself. Is that the way for him to be adored, to say, That there is but one God? He says that he is Mortal; how long is it since the Devil was so humble as to strip himself even of his Natural Qualities? You see then, my Son, that if the Principle of him, who by Excellence is called the God of Knowledge, hold Good; the Devil can never have spoken in the Oracles.  
But if it be not the Devil (said I) either in a frolic telling a Lie, when he calls himself Mortal; or speaking the Truth by force, when he speaks of God; to what then will your Cabal ascribe all the Oracles, which ye maintain to have been really delivered? Is it to an exhalation of the Earth, as Aristotle, Cicero, and Plutarch affirm? Not so my Child, (said the Count) t anks to the Sacred Cabal, I'm not so far out of my Wits yet. How! (replied I) hold you that then to be a Fantastical Opinion? It is maintained though by men of good sense. They are not so in this point, my Son (continued he) and it is impossible that all that hath been done in Oracles, can be attributed to Exhalation: For Example, That Man, in Tacitus, who in a Dream appeared to the Priests of a Temple of Hercules in Armenia, and commanded them to provide Dogs and Horses to go a Hunting. Thus far it might have been Exhalation; but when at Night those Dogs and Horses returned almost spent, and the Quivers empty of Arrows, and that next day there were as many Beasts found dead in the Forest, as there were Arrows in the Quivers; this you see could not be Exhalation. And far less it was the Devil; for it would be a very unreasonable and uncabalistick Notion of the Misery of the Enemy of God, to think that he is permitted to take his pleasure in Hunting the Hind or Hare.  
To what does the sacred Cabal then (said I) attribute the matter? Hold a little (answered he) before I discover to you that Mystery, I must dispossess you of a prejudice that you may entertain as to that pretended Exhalation; for it appears to me that you emphatically cited Aristotle, Plutarch, and Cicero. You may likewise cite Jamblichus, wh●f●r all he was a Man of so great parts, was sometime in that Error; which he quickly forsook, when he had examined the Matter more narrowly in the Book of Mysteries.  
Peter of Apova, Pomponatius, Levinius, Sirenius, and Lucilio Vanino, are overjoyed in finding that evasion amongst some of the Ancients. All these pretended Wits, who speaking of Divine Matters, say rather what they desire, than what they know; will allow nothing supernatural in Oracles, lest they should be forced to acknowledge somewhat above man. They are afraid we should lead them up, as by a Jacob's Ladder, to G●d, whom they fear to know by the st●ps and degrees of spiritual creatures; but had rather make themselves one, to descend by into the Abyss of Nothing; instead of lifting themselves up to heaven, they dig down into the earth; and instead of searching in the beings, that are superior to man, the cause of th●se transports, that raise him above himself, and render him a kind of D●ity: they weakly ascribe to feeble Exhalations that virtue of penetrating into the future, of discovering hidden things, and of soaring up to the highest secrets of the Divine Essence.  
Such is the misery of Man, when he is possessed with a spirit of contradiction, and an humour of thinking otherwise than other men do! He is so far from attaining his ends, that he entangles and fetters himself. These Libertines will not subject Man to substances less material than himself, and yet subject him to an Exhalation: and never considering that there is no Analogy betwixt that Chimerical steam and the soul of Man; betwixt that vapour and things future; betwixt that frsvolous cause and those miraeulous Effects: It is enough for them to be singular, to make them think themselves reasonable; and to deny spirits, that they may set up for men of spirit and wit.  
You are much offended at singularity then, Sir? (said I, interrupting him.) Ah! my Son (answered he) it is the Plague of a good Judgement; and the stumbling-block of the greatest Wits. Aristotle, for all he was so great a Logician, could not avoid the snare, into which a conceit of singularity leads those who are so violently acted by it as he was: He could not (I say) avoid tripping and puzzling himself in his reasonings. In his Book of the Generation of Animals, and in his Ethics, he says, That the spirit and mind of Man comes to him from without, and that it is not transmitted from Father to Son; and from the spirituality of the operations of our Soul; he concludes it to be of another Nature than the Material Body which it inspires, the grossnoss whereof does but offuscate Speculations, far from producing them. Blind Aristotle, seeing according to your opinion our material part cannot be the source of our spiritual thoughts, how do you fancy that a weak Exhalation can be the Fountain of sublime Speculations, and of the high Flight of the Pythians, who render Oracles. You well perceive (my Child) how that great Wit trips, and that his singularity makes him lose himself. You reason very exactly, Sir, (said I, ravished to find that he spoke in effect to very good purpose; and hoping that his folly might not prove incurable) God grant that .....  
Plutarch an Author otherwise so solid (continued hc, interrupting me) is to be pitied in his Dialogue, Why the Oracles have ceased. He makes to himself convincing Objections, which he does not solve. Why does not he then answer what is objected to him; that if it be an Exhalation which occasions that transport, than all that approach the Prophetic ●tool, should be seized with Enthusiasm, and not a single Maid, who must be also a Virgin. But how can that Vapour articulate a Voice in the Belly. Moreover that Exhalation is a natural and necessary Agent, and aught always to produce regularly the same Effect? Why is that Maid than never inspired, but when she is consulted? And what is more urging, why has the Earth left off to send out such Divine Vapours? Is it less Earth than it was? Does it receive other Influences? Are there other ●eas and other Rivers? Who has then stopped the Pores, or changed the Nature thereof?  
I wonder that Pomponatius, Lucilius, and the rest of the Libertines, should have followed the Notion of Plutarch, and yet abandoned the way he takes to explain himself. He spoke more judiciously than Cicero and Aristotle, for he was a man indeed of good judgement, and not knowing what to make of all those Oracles, after a long and tedious uncertainty, he at length fixed upon this, That that Exhalation which he believed came out of the Earth, was a most Divine Spirit, So that he ascribed to the Deity those extraordinary agitations and Prophetic Raptures of the Priests of Apollo. That Divining Vapour (said he) is a Breath, and a most holy and divine Spirit. Pomponatius, Lucilius, and the Modern Atheists, like not those ways of speaking which suppose a Deity. These Exhalations (say they) were of the nature of those Vapours which infested Melancholic People, who speak Languages which they understand not. But Fernelius confutes these impious men very well, by proving that Melancholy, which is a peccant Humour, cannot occasion that variety of Tongues, which is one of the wonderfullest Effects of Consideration, and an Artificial Expression of our Thoughts. He hath nevertheless but imperfectly decided the Matter, when he subscribes to Psellus, and to all those who have not been sufficiently endowed with our holy Philosophy; for not knowing what cause to give for such surprising Effects, like Women and Monks, he hath attributed them to the Devil. To whom are they then to be attributed? (said I.) I have long waited for that Cabalistick Secret.  
Plutarch himself hath very well observed it (said he) and he would have done well to have held to that. That irregular way of Speaking by an unseemly Organ, being base and unworthy of the Majesty of the Gods (says the Pagan) and what the Oracles said, surpassing likewise: the power of the Soul of Man; they have done great Service to Philosophy; who have placed a kind of Mortal Creatures betwixt the Gods and Man, to whom may be ascribed all that surpasses the weakness of Man, and comes not near the greatness of the Deities.  
That is the Opinion of all the Ancient Philosophy. The Platonists and Pythagoreans learned it from the Egyptians, and those from Joseph and the Hebrews, who dwelled in Egypt before they passed the Red Sea. The Hebrews called those Substances which are between Angels and Men, Sadaim; and the Greeks transposing the Syllables, and adding but one Letter, call them Daimonas. These Demons amongst the Ancient Philosophers, are an Aereal People, bearing rule over the Elements, mortal, generative, but unknown in this Age by those who search little for Truth in its ancient Habitations; that is to say, in the Cabal and Theology of the Hebrews, who had the particular Art of Entertaining that Aereal Nation, and conversing with the Inhabitants of the Air.  
You are at your Sylphs again, I fancy, Sir, (said I interrupting him.) Yes, my Son (continued he) the Jewish Teraphim was only the Ceremony that was to be observed for that Commerce: and that Jew Micah, who in the Book of Judges complains that they had carried away his Gods, laments only the loss of the little Statue; wherein the Sylphs conversed with him. The Gods that Rachel stole from her Father, were also a Teraphim▪ Micah and Laban are not accused of Idolatry, and Jacob would have been loath to have lived Fourteen years with an Idolater, or to have married his Daughter. It was but a Commerce of Sylphs; and we know by Tradition that the Synagogue held that Commerce to be lawful, and that David's Wife's Idol was only a Teraphim, by means whereof she entertained a Correspondence with the Elementary People: for you may very well conceive, that the Prophet according to Gods own heart, would never have suffered Idolatry in his House Whilst for punishment of the first sin, God slighted the World, these Elementary Nations took delight to explain to Men in Oracles what they knew of God; to teach them to live morally; to give them most wise and sound Counsels; such as are to be seen in great numbers in Plutarch and all the Historians: But so soon as God took pity on the world, and would himself become its Teacher, these little Masters withdrew; and from thence came the silence of the Oracles.  
The result of all your Discourse Sir, (said I) is that there have been certainly Oracles, and that they were rendered by Sylphs: who render them still daily in Glasses or Mirors. Sylphs or Salamanders, Gnomes, or Undians (replied the Count) If it be so, Sir (answered I) all your Elementary People are an▪ illbred Pack. And why? (said he.) Why (said I) can there be greater cheating and juggling in the World, than those Responses of double meaning which they always gave. Always (replied he.) Ha! not always. The Sylphide who appeared to that Roman in Asia, and foretold him, That he should one day return thither with the Dignity of Proconsul. Did she speak very obscurely? And does not Tacitus say, That the thing happened as she had foretell? That Inscription and those famous Statues in the Spanish History, which informed the Unfortunate King, Roderigo, That his curiosity and incontinence should one day be punished by me● clothed and armed as they were; and that those black men should invade Spain, and reign long in it. Can any thing be clearer than that, and did not the effect justify the truth that very same year? Did not the Moors come and dethrone that Effeminate King? You know the Story, and you may easily judge that the Devil, who since the Reign of the Messiah disposes not of Empires, could not be Author of that Oracle: And that it must certainly have been some great Cabalist, who learned it from one of the most knowing Salamanders. For seeing the Salamanders are great Lovers of Chastity, they willingly acquaint us with the evils that are to befall the World for the want of that Virtue.  
But, Sir (said I) do you think it a very chaeste thing, and becoming Cabalistick Modesty, to make use of that Heteroclitous Organ by which they preached their Morality? Ah! for this once (said the Count laughing) I perceive you have the Imagination distempered, and you see not the Physical reason why the inflamed Salamander delights naturally in the most fiery hot places, and is attracted by ...... I understand, I understand (said I, interrupting him) you need not take the pains to explain yourself more fully.  
As to the Obscurities of some Oracles (continued he seriously) which you call Juggling and Cheating, is not Darkness the usual Mantle of Truth? Does not God take pleasure to hid himself under that Dusky Veil; and the Everlasting Oracle which he hath left to his Children, I mean the Holy Scriptures; is it not wrapped up in an adorable Obscurity; which confounds and misleads the proud, as its light guides the humble?  
If that be all the scruple you have, my Son, I would not advise you to delay your entering into Commerce with the Elementary People. You will find them very honest folks, knowing, benificent, and Fearers of God. It i●e my Opinion, that you should begin with the Salamanders; for in your Figure you have Mars in the Mid-heaven, which imports that there is a great deal of Fire in all your actions. And as to Marriage, I would advise you to take a Sylphide; you'll live happier with her than with any of the others; for you have Jupiter on the Cusp of your Ascendant, within a Sextile of Venus. Now Jupiter rules over the Air and the People of the Air. However you must consult your own heart about the matter; for as you shall one day know, a Sage is governed by the internal Planets, and the Planets of the external Heavens serve only to make known to him more certainly the Aspects of the Internal Heaven, which is in every Creature: So that it lies at your Door now to tell me what your inclination is, to the end we may proceed to your match with those of the Elementary People whom you like best. Sir (answered I) that is an Affair, which in my opinion requires some little deliberation. I like you for that Answer, ● said he, clapping his hand upon my ● shoulder.) Consult deliberately about that great matter, especially with him who by Excellence is called, The Angel of the Great Council. Go, betake yourself to Prayer, and to morrow about Two of the Clock after Noon, I will come and wait on ●ou.  
We returned towards Paris, and upon the Road I put him again upon the Discourse against Atheists and Libertines: I never heard more solid Reasoning, nor better and more sublime things said for the Existence of a God, and against the blindness of those who spend their lives without applying themselves wholly to a serious and continual worship of him, from whom we have our being, and who does preserve it. I wondered at the Character of the Man, and could not conceive, how at the same time he could be strong and so weak; so admirable and so ridiculous.   

The Fourth Conference about Secret Sciences.  
I Stayed at home expecting the Count of Gabalis, as we had agreed at our parting. He came at the appointed hour, and accosting me with a smiling air; Well, my Son (said he) for which kind of the Invisible People hath God given you the greatest Inclination, and what Alliance will please you best, whether of the Salamanders, Gnomides, Nymphs or Sylphides? I am not as yet fully resolved about that match, Sir, (answered I.) Who is in the fault then? (replied he.) To be free with you, Sir, (said I) I cannot cure my imagination; it still represents to me those pretended Guests of the Elements as the Tassels of Devils. O Lord! (cried he) O God of Light, disperse the darkness which ignorance and perverse Education hath spread over the soul of this Elect; who, as you have made known to me, is destined by you to so great matters. And you, my Son, shut not the Door against 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 ways. It can break thorough Doors of Iron, and enter where it pleases, in spite of all the resistance of Falsehood. What can you have to object against it? Hath not God, d'ye think created in the Elements such Substances as I have described?  
I have not examined (said I) if there be any possibility in the matter itself; If one single Element can furnish Blood, Flesh, and Bones? If there can be a Temperature without Mixture, and Actions without Contrariety? But granting that God could do it, what solid Argument is there that he hath done it?  
Will you be convinced of it presently (replied he) without so much ? I'll go call the Sylphs of Cardan, you shall hear from their own mouths what they are, and what I have told you of them. No, not so, Sir, if you please (cried I briskly.) Wave, I adjure you, that kind of proof, until I be persuaded that those Blades are no Enemies to God; for till then I'll die, sooner than wrong my Conscience by .....  
This, this is the ignorant and false piety of these unhappy Times (said the Count in Choler, interrupting me) Why then is not the greatest of Anchorites blotted out of the Calendar of Saints? And why are not his Statues burnt? It is a wrong that his venerable Ashes are not raked up? And that they are not scattered in the Air, as the Ashes of those who are accused of having had Commerce with Devils? Did he attempt to exorcise the Sylphs? And hath he not treated them as Men? What can you say to that now Seigneur Scrupuloso, you and all your silly Doctors? Was the Sylph who discoursed to that Patriarch of his Nature, in your opinion the Tassel of a Devil; Did that incomparable Man consult with a Goblin about the Gospel? And will you accuse him of having profaned the adorable Mysteries, by discoursing of them with a Spirit the Enemy of God? Athanasius and St. Jerome then very ill deserve the great name that is given them by the Learned; having wrote with so much eloquence the Elegy of a Man who was so courteous to Devils. If they took the Sylph for a Devil, they ought either to have stifled the Adventure, or interpreted in a spiritual Sense that Sermon, or that so pathetic Apostrophie which the Anchorite, more credulous and zealous than you are, makes to the City of Alexandria: And if they thought that Sylph a Creature participant, as he assures us, as well as we of Redemption; and if in their Opinion that Apparition was an extraordinary grace of God showed to the Saint, whose Life they wrote, are you reasonable to pretend to more knowledge than Athanasius and Jerome, and greater holiness than Divine Anthony? What would you have said to that admirable man, had you been one of those Ten thousand Hermit's, to whom he related the Conversation that he had with the Sylph? You, without doubt, wiser and more enlightened than all those Terrestrial Angels, would have told the Saint, That his whole Adventure was a mere Illusion; and you would have dissuaded his Disciple Athanasius from publishing to all the World a Story so inconsistent with Religion, Philosophy, and Common Sense. Is it not true what I say?  
It is true (said I) that I would have been of the Opinion, either to have said nothing at all, or more of it. Athanasius and St. Jerome (replied he) had no mind to speak more of it; for they knew no more but that; and though they had known all, which could not be unless they were of our number; they would not have rashly divulged the Secrets of Wisdom.  
But why did not that Sylph (said I) propose to St. Anthony, what you propose to day to me? What (said the Count laughing) Matrimony? Ha', ha', that had been to good purpose indeed▪ It is true (replied I) that in all appearance the good Man would not have embraced the Match. No certainly (sai● the Count) for it would have been a tempting of God to have married a● that Age, and to have asked Children of him. How (replied I) do you marry with Sylphs then, to have Children by them▪ For what end else (said he) are Men ever allowed to marry, for another end? I did not think (replied I) that ye expected or pretended to any Issue; but that all ye did, was only to immortalize Sylphs.  
Ha! You are in the wrong (continued he) the Charity of Philosophers makes them propose for their end the Immortality of the Sylphides: but Nature m●kes them desirous to see them fruitful. You shall see, when you have a mind, those Philosophical Families in the Air. Happy were the World, if it had none but such Families, and if there were no Children of Corruption in it. What do you call Children of Corruption, Sir? (said I, interrupting him.)  
Such are (said he) my Son, such are all the Children who are born in the ordinary way; Children conceived by the Will of the Flesh, not by the Will of God; Children of Wrath and Malediction; in a word, Children of Men and Women. You have a mind to interrupt me; I know very well what you would say. Verily, my Son, you must know, that it was never the Will of the Lord that Men and Women should have Children by the way they procreate. The Design of the alwise Creator was much more Noble; he intended the World should have been peopled far otherwise than it is, if wretched Adam had not so grossly disobeyed the Command of God, Not to touch Eve; and if he had been satisfied with all the other Fruits of the Garden of Pleasure, with the Beauty of the Nymphs and Sylphides; the World would not have had the disgrace to be filled with Men, so imperfect; that they may pass for Monsters, if compared with the Children of Philosophers.  
How, Sir (said I) by what I perceive, you believe that the crime of Adam is somewhat else than the eating of the Apple? What, my Son (replied the Count) are you of the number of those that have the simplicity to understand the Story of the Apple literally? Ha! You must know, that the Holy Tongue uses those innocent Metaphors, to keep us from conceiving Obscene Notions of an Action which occasioned all the Miseries of Mankind. So, when Solomon said, I will ascend the Palm tree, and gather the fruits thereof; he had another appetite than the eating, of Dates: that Tongue which is consecrated by Angels, and used by them in singing Hymns to the Living God, hath no Terms to express what it figuratively names, calling it an Apple or Date. But a Sage easily explains those chaste Figures, when he perceives that the Mouth or Taste of Eve are not punished, and that she brings forth in pain: He knows that it is not the Taste that was in the fault: And discovering what was the first sin, by the care which the first sinners had to cover some parts of their Bodies with Figtree Leaves, he concludes that it was not the will of God that Men should multiply by that base way. O Adam! you should have begotten none but men like yourself, or none but Heroes and Giants.  
Pray now! what expedient was there, (said I interrupting him) for one or other of those mervellous Generations? To obey God (replied he) to touch none but Nymphs, Gnomes, Sylphides. or Salamanders. So none but Heroes would have sprung from his Loins, and the Universe would have been peopled with a wonderful Race; filled with strength and wisdom. God was pleased to let us guests at the difference that would have been betwixt that innocent world and the sinful world which now we see, by suffering now and then Children to be begotten after the manner that he has projected. There has been sometimes then Sir (said I) some of those Children of the Elements? And a Doctor of the Sorbonne, who cited to me t'other day St. Austin, St. Jerome, and Gregory Nazianzene, is mistaken then, in believing that no fruit could spring from the loves of those spirits for our women, or the commerce that men might have with certain Devils whom he called Hyphialtes.  
Lactantius reasoned better (replied the Count) and solid Thomas Aquinas hath learnedly decided, that those copulations might not only be fruitful; but that the Children so begotten, are of a far more generous and heroic nature than others. In effect, you shall read when you please the high feats of those mighty and famous men, who as Moses says, were begotten in that manner; we have amongst us the Histories of them in the Book of the Wars of the Lord, cited in the Twenty third Chapter of Numbers. However judge what a world it would be, if all its Inhabitants, for instance, resembled Zoroaster.  
Zoroaster (said I) who is reputed to be the Author of Necromancy? The very same (said the Count) of whom the ignorant have wrote that calumny, he had the honour to be the Son of the Salamander Oromasis, and Vesta the Wife of Noah. He lived Twelve hundred years, the wisest Monarch in the world, and then was by his Father Oromasis transported into the Region of Salamanders. I make no doubt (said I) but Zoroaster is with the Salamander Oromasis in the Region of Fire: but I would be loath to put such an affront upon Noah, as you have done.  
The affront is not so great as you may imagine (replied the Count) all those Patriarches reckoned it a great honour to be the presumptive Fathers of the Children, which the Sons of God were willing to beget upon their Wives; but this is likewise a little too strong for you. Let us return to Oromasis; he was beloved of Vesta the Wife of Noah. That same Vesta after her death was the Tutelary Genius of Rome, and the Sacred Fire which she would have carefully kept by Virgins, was to the honour of her Gallant the Salamander. Besides Zoroaster, they had also a Daughter of an excellent Beauty and extreme Wisdom; she was that Divine Egeria from whom Numa Pompilius received all his Laws. She obliged Numa, whom she loved, to build a Temple to her Mother Vesta, where the Sacred Fire was kept in honour of her Father Oromasis. This is the truth of the Fable which the Poets and Roman Historians have related of that Nymph Egeria. William Postoll, the least ignorant of all who have studied the Cabal in the Common Books, knew that Vesta was the Wife of Noah; but he was ignorant that Egeria was the Daughter of that Vesta; and not having read the secret Books of the Ancient Cabal, of which the Prince of Mirandula bought a Copy at so dear a rate; he believed that Egeria was only the good Genius of Noah's Wife. We are informed by these Books that Egeria was conceived upon the Water, when Noah wandered upon the avenging Floods that deluged the Universe. Women were then reduced to that little number which was saved in the Cabalistick Ark, which that second Father of the World had built: This great Man groaning to see the dreadful punishment wherewith God chastised the Crimes occasioned by the love that Adam had for his Eve; and perceiving that Adam had undone his posterity, by preferring Eve to the Daughters of the Elements, and by denying her to Salamanders or Sylphs, who could easily have gained her love. Noah (I say) growing wise, by the fatal example of Adam, consented that his Wife Vesta should yield to the Salamander Oromasis, the Prince of fiery Substances; and likewise persuaded his three Sons to give their three Wives to the Princes of the Three other Elements. The Universe by this means was in a short time repeopled with so heroic, knowing, beautiful, and rare Men, that their Posterity dazzeled with their Virtues took them for Deities. One of the Sons of Noah rejects the counsel of his Father, and cannot resist the Charms of his Wife, no more than Adam of his Eve: But as the Sin of Adam blackened the souls of all his Offspring, so the small complaisance, that Cham had for the Sylphs, marked all his black Posterity. Hence comes (as our Cabalists say) the horrible colour of the Moors, and all those hideous People who are commanded to inhabit the Torrid Zone, as a Punishment of the Profane Heat of their Father.  
These are indeed pretty odd Records, Sir, (said I, admiring the extravagancy of the Man) and your Cabal is of wonderful use for illustrating Antiquity. Wonderfully (replied he gravely) and without it Scripture, History, Fables, and Nature, are obscure and unintelligible. For example, you believe that the injury which Cham did to his Father, was such as it appears by the Letter, verily it is a far different thing. Noah being come out of the Ark, and perceiving that his Wife Vesta grew fairer and fairer, by the commerce she held with her Gallant Oromasis, fell passionately in love with her again. I'm fearing that his Father was about to people the Earth with a Race as black as his Moors, watched his opportunity one day, when the good old Man was full of Wine, and without mercy cut off his stones. You laugh?  
I laugh (said I) at the indiscreet zeal of Cham. You should rather admire (replied the Count) the Civility of the Salamander Oromasis, whom Jealousy hindered not to pity his Rival's Misfortune; he taught his son Zoroaster, otherways called Japhet, the name of the Omnipotent God, which expresseth his eternal fecundity: Japhet, with his Brother Shem, marching backwards towards the Patriarch, pronounced six times by turns the dreadful Name of JABAMIAH, and made the old Man whole again. This History, ill understood, made the Greeks say that the ancientest 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 Jealousy of these is Cruel, as Divine Paracelsus informs us in an adventure which he relates, and which was seen by all the Town of Stauffembergh. A Philosopher, with whom a Nymph engaged in a Commerce of Immortality, was so dishonest as to fall in love with a Woman; as he was at Dinner with his new Mistress and some Friends, they saw in the Air one of the louliest Thighs and Legs that could be imagined: The Invisible Lover was willing to show it to the Friends of her Disloyal Servant, to the end they might judge how much he was in the wrong, to prefer a Woman to her. After which, the enraged Nymph killed him on the spot.  
Ha', ha'! Sir (cried I) that is enough to put me out of conceit with such Misses. I confess (replied he) their nicety is a little too violent; but if amongst our Women, some provoked Misses have been known to dispatch their perjured Gallants, it is not to be wondered at if those so beautiful and faithful Sweethearts, be enraged when they find themselves betrayed; and the rather because they exact no more from Men, but that they would abstain from Women, whose defects they cannot away with; and that they allow us to make love to as many of themselves as we please. They prefer the Interest and Immortality of their Companions to their private fatisfaction; and are glad when the Sages bestow upon their Republic as many Children as they are able to beget.  
But in fine, Sir (replied I) how comes it to pass that there are so few instances of what you tell me? There are a great many, Child (continued he) but Men reflect not on them, or believe them not; or in a word explain them amiss, for want of the knowledge of our Principles. They ascribe to Devils, all that should be attributed to the people of the Elements. A little Gnome procures the love of the famous Magdalene of the Cross, Abbess of a Monastery at Cordova in Spain; at twelve years of age she began to render him happy, and they continued their Commerce for the space of Thirty years. An ignorant Confessor persuades Magdalene that her Gallant was a Goblin, and obliges her to beg Absolution from Pope Paul the Third. Nevertheless it is impossible that it could be a Devil; for all Europe knows, and Cassiodorus Renius hath left on Record to Posterity, the Miracle that was daily done in favour of that Holy Nun, which in appearance would not have happened, if her commerce with the Gnome had been so devilish as the Venerable Confessor imagined. That Doctor, if I mistake not, would have boldly affirmed that the Sylph who immortalised himself with the young Gertrude, a Nun of the Monastery of Nazareth in the Diocese of Cologne, was some Devil. Without doubt (said I) and I think so too. Ha! my Son (continued he laughing) 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 sweet Love-letters that were found in her Cabinet.  
Believe, my Child, believe, that in the Region of Death the Devil hath sadder Employments and more conform to the hatred which the God of Purity pursues him with: but thus men wilfully shut their eyes. We find, for instance in Titus Livius, that Romulus was the Son of Mars; the Wits say, that it is a Fable: the Divines, that he was the Son of a Devil: the Drolls, that Madam Sylvia lost her Gloves, and that she would cover the shame of it, by saying that they were stolen from her by a God. We who know Nature, and who are called by God from that darkness to his mervellous light; we know, that that same pretended Mars was a Salamander, who taken with the young Sylvia, made her the Mother of great Romulus, the Hero, who having founded his stately City, was by his Father carried away in a Flaming Chariot, as Zoroaster was by Oromasis.  
Another Salamander was the Father of Servius Paulus; Titus Livius says it was the God of Fire, deceived by the resemblance; and the ignorant have past the same Judgement on him as on the Father of Romulus. The famous Hercules, and the invincible Alexander, were the Sons of the greatest of the Sylphs. The Historians, ignorant of that, have said that Jup●ter was their Father. They said true, for as you have been told, those Sylphs, Nymphs, and Salamanders, being reckoned Deities, the Historians, who believed them to be so, called all that were begotten by them the Children of Gods.  
Such were the Divine Plato, the more Divine Apollonius Thianeus, Hercules, Achilles, Sarpedon, Pius Aeneas, and renowned Melchisedeck; for do you know who was Melchisedecks' Father? No really Sir (said I) for St. Paul knew it not. Nay say, that he would not tell (replied the Count) and that he was not permitted to reveal the Cabalistick Mysteries; he well knew that the Father of Melchisedeck was a Sylph, and that that King of Salem was conceived in the Ark by the wife of Shem. The manner of that High-Priests sacrificing, was the same, which his Cousin Egeria taught King Numa, as well as the adoration of a Supreme Deity without Image and Statue: by reason whereof the Romans sometime after falling into Idolatry, burned the Holy Books of Numa, which were dictated by Egeria. The first God of the Romans was the true God, they had true Sacrifice, they offered Bread and Wine to the Sovereign Master of the World; but that was wholly perverted in succeeding Times; yet God, in acknowledgement of that Primitive Worship, gave that City, which had owned his Sovereignty, the Empire of the Universe. The same Sacrifice which Melchisedeck ........  
I beg of you, Sir (said I, interrupting him) let us wave Melchisedeck, the Sylph that begot him, his Cousin Egeria, and the Sacrifice of Bread and Wine. These Arguments seem to me a little remote; and you would much oblige me, to tell me news of a fresher date; for I heard a Doctor say, who was asked what was become of that Satire who appeared to St. Anthony, and whom you have called a Sylph; that all those Blades are dead now. And indeed it may very well be, since you acknowledge them to be mortal; and that we hear no news of them.  
Now I pray God (replied the Count in a little heat) I pray God, who knows all things, that he would never know that unknowing man, who so sottishly decides what he knows not. Confound him and all such Coxcombs. Which way hath he learned that the Elements are desert, and that all those mervellous people are annihilated? If he would have taken the pains to read a little History, and not like good Women, attribute to the Devil  transcends the Chimerical Theory which he hath framed to himself of Nature, he would have found in all Times and Places, sufficient instances of what I have now told you.  
What would your Doctor say to that Authentic Story which happened lately in Spain? A lovely Sylphide was beloved of a Spaniard, lived with him three years, had three fine Children to him, and then died. Will one say that it was a She-Devil? A learned Answer indeed! by what Philosophy can the Devil form to himself the Body of a Woman, conceive, bring forth, and give suck? What proof is there in Scripture of that extravagant Power, which on this occasion your Divines are obliged to grant to the Devil? And what probable Reason can their weak Physics furnish them with. The Jesuit Delrio, a Man of Sincerity and Candour, faithfully relates several such Adventures, and without perplexing himself with Physical Reasons, slips his Neck out of the Collar, by saying, That those Sylphides were Devils: So true it is, That your greatest Doctors know no more most times than silly Women! So true it is, That God loves to retire into his Cloudy Throne, and that condensing the Darkness which incompasses his dreadful Majesty, he discovers not his Verities, but to such as are of an humble heart. Learn from the Sages to give the Devils no power in Nature, since the fatal Stone hath shut them up in the Bottomless Pit. Learn of Philosophers always to search for Natural Causes in all extraordinary Emergents; and when Natural Causes fail, make your recourse to God and his holy Angels, but never to the Devils, who do no more but suffer: otherwise you will many times blaspheme before you are ware; and attribute to the Devil the most mervellous Works of Nature.  
For Example, When you are told that the Divine Apollonius Thianeus was conceived without the help of any Man, and that one of the highest Salamanders descended to immortalize himself with his Mother; you'll say that that Salamander was a Devil, and you'll give the Devil the glory of the generation of one of the greatest Men that ever sprung from our Philosophical Marriage-Beds.  
But, Sir (said I, interrupting him) that same Apollonius is amongst us reputed to have been a great Sorcerer, and that is all the good that is said of him.  
There is (replied the Count) one of the strangest effects of Ignorance and perverse Education; because one has heard his Nurse tell Tales of Sorcerers,  comes to pass extraordinarily, must have the Devil for Author. It is in vain for the greatest Doctors to talk, we will never believe them, unless they say as our Nurses say. Apollonius is not begotten of a Man, he understands the Language of Birds, he is seen the same day in several places of the World, he disappears before the Emperor Domitian, who would have used him ill: He raises a Maid by virtue of Onomancy: He says at Ephesus in an Assembly of all Asia, that at the very instant the Tyrant is killed at Rome. That Man is to be tried, the Nurse says he is a Sorcerer; St. Jerome and St. Justin Martyr, say he was only a great Philosopher. Jerome, Justin, and we Cabalists, shall be Enthusiasts, and the little Woman shall carry the day. Ha! Let the Ignorants perish in their Ignorances'; but for you, my Son, save yourself from the Shipwreck.  
When you read that the Famous Merlin was born without the help of Man of a Nun, the Daughter of a King of Great Britain; and that he foretell things future more clearly than Tyresia. Say not with the Vulgar, That he was the Son of an Incubus, seeing there never was any; nor, That he prophesied by the Black Art, seeing the Devil is the most ignorant of all Creatures; according to the holy Cabal. Say with the Sages, That the British Princess was comforted in her Solitude by a Sylph, who took pity on her; that he made it his business to divert her: that he knew how to please her, and that their Son Merlin was bred by the Sylph in all Sciences, and learned of him to do all the Mervels which are related in the Histories of England.  
Neither offer that Affront to the Counts of Cleves, to say, That the Devil is their Forefather, and entertain a better opinion of the Sylph, who as History tells us, came to Cleves in a miraculous Ship drawn by a Swan, that was yoked to it with a Silver Chain. That Sylph having begot many Children upon the Heiress of Cleves, departed one day at Noon in his Aereal Ship, in the sight of all the people. Now what hurt hath he done your Doctors, that they set him up for a Devil?  
But will you have so little regard to the honour of the House of Lusignan? and will you give your Counts of Poitiers a Diabolical Extraction? What will you say of their famous Mother? I believe Sir (said I interrupting him) you are about to tell me Tales of Melusina. Ha! (replied he) if you deny me the History of Melusina, I give you over for lost: but if you deny it, we must burn the Books of great Paracelsus, who ●n five or six different places maintains that Melusina was a Nymph; and you must give the lie to your Historians, who say that since her death, or rather since she vanished out of her Husband's ●ight, she hath never failed (whensoever ●her Offspring were threatened with any misfortune, or any King of France was to die by an extraordinary death) to appear in Mourning upon the great Tower of the Castle of Lusignan which she built. You would have a quarrel with all that are descended from that Nymph, or that are allied to that House, if you should obstinately maintain it was the Devil.  
Do ye think, Sir (said I) that these Lords like best to be descended from Sylphs? They would without doubt like it best (replied he) if they knew what I tell you, and they would reckon those extraordinary procreations to be a great honour. They would know, if they had a glimpse of the Cabal, that that kind of generation being more suitable to the way that God in the beginning intended men should be multiplied; the Children that spring from it are happier, more valiant, wise, renowned, and more blessed of God. Is it not more glorious for those illustrious Men to be descended from so perfect, wise, and powerful Creatures, than from some nasty Goblin, or infamous Asmodeus?  
Sir (said I) our Divines are far from saying that the Devil is the Father of a● those who come into the World, when it is not known who begot them. They acknowledge the Devil to be a Spirit, and that so he cannot generate. Gregory o● Nice (replied the Count) says not so, for he holds that the Devils multiplied among themselves, as Men do. We are not of his Opinion (answered I) but it comes to pass (say our Doctor's .....) Ha! say not (said the Count interrupting me,) say not, what they say, else you'l● speak as they do, a very foul and obscene impertinency. What abominable shift have they found there? It is strang● how they have all unanimously embraced that Pollution, and placed little Goblins in ambuscado, to make advantage of the idle Brutality of solitary Persons, and thereby to hatch thos● miraculous Men, whose illustrious memory they slain by so base a Conception. Do they call that to play the Philosophers? ●s it beseeming the Majesty of God, to ●ay that he does so far comply with the Devil, as to favour such abominations, to ●rant them the Blessing of Fruitfulness, ●hich he hath denied to Saints, and to ●ward those Impurities by ereating for ●●ch embryo's of Iniquity, more Heroic Souls, than for those who have been beat in the Chastity of a lawful Mar●age? Is it be-fitting Religion, to say as our Doctors do, that the Devil by that detestable Artifice can make a Maid with●hild in her sleep without hurting her Vir●nity; which is as absurd as the Story that Thomas Aquinas (other-ways a very solid author, and who understood a little of the ●abal) forgot himself so far, as to relate his sixth Quodlibet, of a Maid lying ●ith her Father, to whom he makes the ●ne accident happen, that befell the ●aughter of Jeremiah (as some heretical ●abins say) who make her to have con●ived the great Cabalist Ben Syrah, by ●tring into the Bath after the Prophet, are swear that that impertinency hath ●n invented by some .....  
If I durst interrupt your Declamation, Sir, (said I) I would confess that it were to be wished that our Doctors had imagined some Solution, which might not have been so offensive to chaste Ears, such as yours; or else they should have absolutely denied the instances on which the question is grounded.  
An excellent expedient (replied the Count) fie, fie! to deny evident truths: put yourself in the place of a Doctor with a Hood) and suppose that the blessed Danhuzerus came to you as to the Oracle of his Religion ....  
As he was saying so, a Lackey came to acquaint me that a Young Lord was coming to see me. I will not be seen by him (said the Count) I beg your Pardon Sir (said I) you well perceive by that Lord● Name that I cannot deny myself: take the pains then to go into that Closet. Tha● is needless (said he) I'll go make m● self invisible. Ha! Sir (cried I) ● Devilry (if you please) I like not jesting with such edged Tools. Strange Ignorance (said the Count laughing and shrug●● up his Shoulders) not to know tha●●o become invisible, there is no more requisite but to put the contrary of the Light before ones self. With that he went into the Closet) and at the same time the Young Lord came into my Chamber: I beg his pardon if I talked not to him of my Adventure.   

The Fifth Conference about Secret Sciences.  
THe great Lord being gone, as I came back from waiting on him out, I found the Count of Gabalis in my Chamber. It is great pity (said he) that the lofty Lord who has just now been gone, shall one day be one of the 72 Princes of the Sanhedrin 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, vast, sublime, and daring Wit; there is the figure of Geomancy that I cast for him while ye were in Discourse together. I never saw more happy points, and which denoted so noble a Soul; look to that 
(a) Terms of Geomancy,  Mother, what magnanimity she gives him. That 
(b) Terms of Geomancy,  Daughter, shall procure him the Purple. I am vexed at her, and Fortune too, because they deprive Philosophy of a Subject that perhaps might surpass you. But where were we when he came?  
You talked to me, Sir, (replied I) of a Saint that I never saw in the Roman Calendar, I think you called him Danhuzerus: Ha! I remember (answered he) I bid you put yourself in the place of one of your Doctors, and suppose that the blessed Danhuzerus came to open his Conscience to you, and told you.  
Sir, the fame of your knowledge hath brought me hither from beyond the Alps; I have a little scruple that pinches me. In a Mountain of Italy there is a Nymph keeps her Court; a thousand Nymphs as lovely almost as herself, wait upon her. Many handsome, learned, and civil Gentlemen, come thither from all parts of the habitable World; they love those Nymphs, and are beloved of them; there they lead the sweetest life imaginable; they beget most lovely Children on those 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 Mountain, I pleased the Nymph Queen, she made herself visible, and showed me her charming Court. The Sages perceiving that she loved me, respected me almost as their Prince; they exhorted me to yield to the Sighs and Beauty of the Nymph; she herself told me her Sufferings, and omitted nothing that might affect my Heart; and at length told me, that she must die if I would not love her: and that if I loved her, she would be indebted to me for her Immortality. The Reasonings of those 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 midst of my Felicity, I am sometimes troubled by calling to mind that the Church of Rome perhaps approves not too well of this. I came to you, Sir, to consult, what that Nymph is, those Sages and Children, and in what state my Conscience is? There! Master Doctor what Answer would you make to Lord Danhuzerus?  
I would tell him (answered I) with all the respect that I own you, Seigneur Danhuzerus you are a little fanatical; or else your Vision is an Enchantment; your Children and Mistress are Hobgoblins; your Sages are Fools, and your Conscience is seared.  
With that answer (my Son) you may deserve a Doctor's Hood, but you'll never merit to be re●●●●●d amongst us (replied the Count fetching a deep sigh) there is the barbarous Disposition of all the Doctors now a days. A poor Sylph dares not show himself but he is immediately taken for a Goblin; a Nymph must not endeavour Immortality unless she pass 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 composed, for the Fire of Hell that never leaves him. It is to much purpose for them, that they may dispel those injurious suspicions, to make the sign of the Cross when they appear, bow the Knee at the Divine Names, yea, and pronounce them with reverence. These are vain cautions, they cannot obtain that Men would not repute them the Enemies of God, whom they more religiously adore than they that flee from them.  
In earnest, Sir, (said I) do you believe the Sylphs to be very devote? Most devote (answered he) and most zealous for a Deity. The excellent Discourses they make us upon the Divine Essence, and their admirable Prayers edify us exceedingly. Have they Prayers also (said I) I would willingly have one of them? It is easy to satisfy you (replied he) and to the end I may not relate one that may be suspected, or that you may imagine fra●'d by myself; listen to that which the Salamander, who gave responses in the Temple of Delphos, taught the Pagans, and is related by Porphyrius; it contains sublime Theology; and by it you'll see that it was no fault of those wise Creatures, if the World adored not the true God.  
The Prayer of the Salamaders.  
IMmortal, Eternal, Ineffable and Holy Father of all Things, who incessantly art carried on the rolling chariot of everturning Worlds. Ruler of the Etherian Fields, where the Throne of thy Power is raised; from the height whereof thy dreadful Eyes discover all, and thy Holy and Blessed Ears hear every thing. Hear thy Children whom thou hast loved from the beginning of Ages; for thy Bright, thy Great and Eternal Majesty shines over the World, and the Starry Heavens. O sparkling Fire, thou art elevated above them; there thou inlightens and entertains thyself by thy own Brightness, and from thy being flow out continual streams of Light which nourish thine infinite Spirit. That infinite Spirit produces all things, and makes that inexhaustible Treasure of Matter, which cannot be wanting to the Generation that always environ it by reason of the innumerable Forms wherewith it is impregnated, and with which thou filled'st it in the beginning. From that Spirit spring also those most Holy Kings who stand about thy Throne, and make up thy Court. O universal and only Father! O Father of the blessed Mortals and Immortals, thou hast in particular created Powers, who are wonderfully like to thy Eternal Thought, and thine Adorable Essence. Thou hast placed them above the Angels, the Messengers of thy Will in the World. In fine thou hast created us a third kind of Sovereigns in the Elements: Our continual Exercise is to praise thee, and to adore thy Will and Pleasure. We are inflamed with a desire of possessing thee. O Father, O Mother, the tenderest of Mothers! O wonderful Example of the Feelings 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 ye now to that Prayer of the Salamanders? Is it not very Learned, very Sublime and very Devote? And besides very Obscure too (answered I) I heard a Preacher paraphrase upon it, who from thence proved that the Devil amongst his other Vices, is a notorious great Hypocrite. Ho! (cried the Count) what remedy have ye then poor Elementary People? ye speak astonishingly of the nature of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of assistant intelligences, of the Angels and Heavens. Ye make admirable Prayers, and teach them to Men; and when all is done, ye are but hypocritical Goblins!  
Sir (said I interrupting him) I like not at all the Apostrophies you use to those People. Well, well, my Son (replied he) be not afraid that I call them: but let not your weakness so far work upon you at least, as for the future to wonder that you see not so many instances as you would of their Alliance with Men. Alas! Where is that Woman whose imagination your Doctors have not spoiled, who reflects not on that commerce with Horror, and who would not quake at the aspect of a Sylph? Where is the Man that flies not from the sight of them, if he incline a little to be good? Do we but very seldom find an Honest Man that desires their Familiarity? And do any but the Debauched, Covetous, Ambitious and Cheats, covet that Honour, which they shall never have though (VIVE DIEV) because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.  
What becomes then (said I) of all those People volant; seeing Honest Men are now so prejudiced against them? Ho! the Arm of God (said he) is not shortened, and the Devil reaps not all the profit which he hoped from the Ignorance and Error that he hath spread abroad to their prejudice; for besides that the Philosophers, who are numerous, remedy it as much as they can, by wholly renouncing Women: God has permitted these People to use all the innocent Arts they can devise for conversing with Men without their knowledge. What d'ye tell me, Sir (cried I) I tell you the truth (continued he) Do you believe that a Dog can have Children by a Woman? No (answered I) And an Ape (added he?) Neither (replied I.) And a Bear (continued he?) Neither Dog, Bear, nor Ape, (said I) it is without doubt impossible; it is contrary to Nature, Reason, and Common Sense. Good (said the Count) but are not the Kings of the Goths sprung from a Bear and a Swedish Princess? History says so. It is true (replied I) And the Pegusians and Syonians of the Indies (answered he) are they not begotten by a Dog upon a Woman? I have heard that also (said I.) And that Portugese Woman (continued he) who being exposed on a desert Island, had Children by a great Baboon? Our Divines (said I) answer to that Sir) that the Devil putting himself into the shape of those Beasts .... You are again about to allege to me (said the Count interrupting me) the sordid imaginations of your Authors. Understand then once for all, that the Sylphs perceiving that they are taken for Devils when they appear in Humane shape, that they may lessen the Aversion which People have to them; take the shape of those Animals, and so accommodate themselves to the whimsical weakness of Women, who would have a lovely Sylph in Horror, and are not startled at a Dog or Monkey. I could tell you many little stories of the Lady's Lap-dogs, with some Virgins in the World; but that I have a greater Secret to impart to you.  
Know (my Son) that such an one believes himself to be the Son of a Man, who is the Son of a Sylph. Such a Man thinks he is with his Wife, who unawares is immortalising a Nymph. A Wife thinks she has her Husband in her Arms, who is embracing a Salamander; and such a Maid would swear when she awakes that she is a Virgin, who in her sleep hath had the honour she dreamt not of. So the Devil and the Ignorant are equally abused.  
How! (said I) could not the Devil by awaking that sleeping Maid hinder the Salamander from becoming immortal? He could (replied the Count) if the Sages took not a care of that; but we teach all those People the way of binding the Devils, and of opposing their Attempts. Did I not tell you t'other day that the Sylphs and other Elementary Lords are too happy that we are pleased to instruct them in the Cabal. Were it not for us the Devil their great Enemy would exceedingly disturb them, and they would find it hard to immortalize themselves without the privacy of Maids.  
I cannot sufficiently admire (replied I) the profound ignorance, wherein we live; we believe that the Powers of the Air help the amorous sometimes to the accomplishment of their desires. The matter is quite otherways then; for the powers of the Air want the assistance of Men in the prosecution of their loves. You have hit it, my Son (continued the Count) the Sage brings succour to those poor people, who without him are too wretched and weak to resist the Devil; but truly when a Sylph hath learned from us Cabalistically to pronounce the powerful name NEHMAHMIAH, and to join it in form with the delicious name ELIAEL; all the powers of darkness betake them to their Heels, and the Sylphs peaceable enjoys the beloved Object.  
Thus was immortalised the ingenious Sylph, who took the shape of the Lover of a Young Lady of Sevill; it's a known History. The Young Spanish Lady was Beautiful, but as cruel as fair. A Gentleman of Castille, who loved her in vain, resolved one morning to be gone without taking leave, and to travel until he were cured of his fruitless passion. A Sylph finding the fair one to his mind, thought it best to neck the time, and arming himself with the Directions that he had from one of us, to defend himself against the Crosses, that the Devil, envious of his happiness might raise to him; he goes and visits the Lady under the disguise of the absent Lover; he complains, he sighs, and is rejected. He urges, solicits, and perseveres: After some months he wins upon her, gains her Love, persuades her, and at length is made happy. Their Amours are fruitful by a Son, who was secretly born without the knowledge of the Parents, being concealed by the skill of the Aereal Gallant. Their Love continues and is blessed with a second Conception. In the mean time the Gentleman cured by absence, returns to Sevill, and being impatient to see his cruel Mistress, goes with all speed to tell her, that now at length he is in a condition not to displease her; and that he is come to acquaint her that he loves her no more.  
Imagine but with yourself the astonishment of the Young Lady, her Answer, her Tears, Reproaches, and all their surprising Conference. She maintains that she hath yielded to his will; he denies it; that their Child is in such a place, that he is the Father of another in her Womb; he obstinately disowns all. She is comfortless, tears her Hair; the Parents come running at her cries; the desperate Lover persists in her Complaints, and invectives; it is proved that the Gentleman was absent for two years; they search for the first Child and find it, and the second was born at the time.  
And what part acted the Aereal Gallant (said I interrupting him) all this while? I well perceive (answered the Count) that you think, he did ill in abandoning his Mistress to the rigour of her Parents, or the fury of the Inquisition: but he had reason to complain of her, she was not devote enough; for when these Gentlemen immortalize themselves, they labour seriously, and live with much sanctity, that they may not lose the right that they have acquired to the chief good. And so they will have the person to whom they are allied, lead an exemplary Life; as is to be seen in the famous Adventure of a Young Lord of Bavaria.  
He was overwhelmed with grief for the loss of his Wife whom he passionately loved. A Sylphide was advised by one of our Sages to take the shape of that Woman; she took his Counsel, and went and presented herself to the young Mourner, saying, that God had raised her again to comfort him in his extreme affliction. They lived many years together, and had very lovely Children; but this young Lord was not so good a man as to retain the wise Sylphide, he swore and talked Bawdy. She often admonished him; but finding that her Admonitions were in vain, one day she evanished, leaving him only her Coats, and sorrow that he had not followed her holy Counsels. So that you see, my Son, that the Sylphs have reason sometimes to disappear; and you perceive that the Devil cannot hinder, no more than the Capricious Whimsies of your Divines, but that the People of the Elements successfully endeavour their immortality when they are assisted by some one or other of our Sages.  
But really and in good truth, Sir (replied I) are you persuaded that the Devil is so great an Enemy to those Debauchers of Young Maids? A mortal Enemy (said the Count) and especially to the Nymphs, Sylphs, and Salamanders. For as for the Gnomes, he does not hate them so much, for, as I think I told you, these Gnomes terrified at the howling of the Devils which they hear in the Centre of the Earth, choose rather to continue mortal than to run the risk of being so tormented, if they acquired immortality. Hence it is that the Gnomes have pretty good Commerce with their Neighbours the Devils. These persuade the Gnomes, naturally very kind to men, that it is great service done to men, and a deliverance from a great danger, to oblige them to renounce their immortality; for that end they engage to furnish him, whom they can persuade to that renunciation, with as much money as he shall please to ask, to avert the dangers that may threaten his Life during a certain space of time, or what other condition; whicn he who makes that accursed compact shall please: so 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.  
How, Sir (cried I) are not these Compacts whereof Demonographers relate so many examples, in your opinion then, made with the Devil? No sure (replied the Count) hath not the Prince of the World been cast out? Is not he shut up? Is not he bound? Is he not the Caput Mortuum, and terra damnata, which hath sunk to the bottom of the operation of the Supreme and Architypical Stagyrist? Can ●e ascend unto the Region of Light, and spread his concentrated darkness there? He can do nothing against Man. He can only inspire into the Gnomes his Neighbours, to come and make such Propositions to those whom he fears most will be saved; to the end their Soul may die with their Body.  
According to your Doctrine then (added I) these Souls die? They die, Child (answered he) because their Soul dies with the Body. They come off on very easy terms then (replied I) and are very lightly punished for so enormous a Crime as the renouncing of their Baptism, and the death of their Saviour.  
Call you that (said the Count) a slight punishment to enter into the dark Abyss of Nothing? Know that this is a greater punishment than to be damned; that there remains some mercy still in the Justice which God exercises against the sinners in Hell; and that is great favour that they are not consumed by the Fire that burns them. Nonentity is a greater 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 preferring Death to Immortality, and the Abyss of Nothing to the hope of a Blessed Eternity, which they might have a right to possess, if they would alley themselves to Men, without exacting from them those Criminal Renunciations. Some of them believe us, and we marry them to our Daughters.  
Ye preach a Gospel then to the Subterranean people, Sir (said I.) Why not (replied he) we are their Doctors, as well as of the people of the Fire, Air, and Water, and Philosophical Charity is indifferently diffused on all those Children of God, as they are more subtle, and more knowing than the ordinary sort of Men; so are they more docile and capable of Instruction; and they listen to Divine Truths with a respect that ravishes us.  
It must indeed be ravishing (cried I laughing) to see a Caballist in a Pulpit holding forth to these Gentlemen. You shall have the pleasure; my Son, when you will (said the Count) and if you please Ill call them together this Evening, and preach to them about Midnight. At Midnight (cried I) I have been told that that is the hour of Sabat, or the Devil's Night Rendezvous. The Count fell a laughing; You put me in mind (said he) of the Fopperies that are recounted by Demonographers concerning their imaginary Sabbat. I wish also for the rarity of the thing, that you believed them likewise. Ha! as to the Tales of the Sabbat (replied I) I do assure you I believe not one word of it.  
You do well, my Son (said he) for once more, the Devil hath no power so to play upon Mankind, nor to converse with men; far less to make himself be adored by them, as the Inquisitors believe. The occasion of this popular report, is, because the Sages, as I have just now told you, assemble the Inhabitants of the Elements, to preach to ●hem their Mysteries and Morality; and seeing it happens commonly that some Gnome is cured of his gross Error, conceives the horror of Nonentity, and consents to be immortalised; we give him a Maid, marry him, and celebrate the Wedding with all the rejoicing that the Conquest we have made does require: These are the Dances and Shouts of Joy, which Aristottle says were heard in some Islands where no Body was seen however. The great Orpheus was the first that called together the Subterranean People, at his first meeting Sebasi●s the ancientest of the Gnomes, was immortalised; and from that Sebasius the Assembly had its name, in which the Sages directed their Speech to him so long as he lived; as appears in the Hymns of the Divine Orpheus. The ignorant have confounded things, and have taken occasion thereupon to tell a thousand impertinencies, and to decry an Assembly which we only summon for the glory of the Supreme Being. I could never have imagined (said I) that the night Sabat was an Assembly of Devotion. It is though, a most holy and Cabalistick one (replied he) which the World will not easily be persuaded of: But such is the deplorable ignorance of this unjust Age, men are infatuated with a popular opinion, and will not be undeceived. It is in vain for the Sages to speak, Fools are better believed. It is in vain for a Philosopher evidently to demonstrate the Falsity of the Notions that Men have framed to themselves, and give evident proofs to the contrary; let him use what Experiment and solid Reason he can: If a man in a Hood appear, who will undertake to falsify it; Experience and Demonstration are baffled, and Truth cannot again recover its right. Men believe this Hood more than their own Eyes. There hath been a memorable instance of this Popular Infatuation in your own France.  
The Famous Cabalist Zedechias had a mind, in the Reign of your King Pepin, to convince the World that the Elements were inhabited by all those People, whose Nature I have already described to you. The Expedient he conceited, was to advise the Sylphs to show themselves publicly in the Air; they did it with great Pomp and Magnificence. These admirable Creatures were seen in the Air in Humane Shape, sometimes in Battle Array, marching in good Order, standing to their Arms, or encamped under rich Pavilions: sometimes in a Fleet of Aereal Ships of an admirable Build, which sailed with gentle Zephirs. What became of it? Do you think that the ignorant Age fell to reason on the Nature of those marvellous Spectacles? No such matter. The People believed at first that they were Sorcerers, who had got into the Air, to raise Tempests there, and to shower down Hail upon their Crops. The Learned Divines and Lawyers were quickly of the Opinion of the People, the Emperor believed it also; and that ridiculous Notion prevailed so far, that the Wise Charlemaigne, and after him Lewis the Debonair, imposed heavy punishments upon all those pretended Tyrants of the Air. This you may see in the First Chapter of the Capitular Decrees of those two Emperors.  
The Sylphs perceiving that the People, Pedants, and the Crowned Heads themselves, conspired thus against them, resolved that they might make them lose the bad Opinion which they had of their innocent Fleet, to carry away men from all parts, to show them their Fair Women, their Republic, & Government, and then to drop them in several places of the World. They did as they projected, the People seeing Men descend, came running from all parts, possessed with an Opinion that they were Sorcerers, who detached themselves from their Companions, that they might poison the Fruits and the Waters; and according to the rage that is inspired by such imaginations, they dragged the poor innocent men to punishment. It is incredible what a vast number of them perished by Fire and Water in this Kingdom.  
One day amongst the rest it happened at Lions, that three Men and a Woman descended in those Aereal Ships; the whole City gather about them, cry they are Magicians, and that Grimoald 〈◊〉 of Benevent, the Enemy of Charlemaigne, sent them to destroy the Crops of France. It was to no purpose for the four Innocents' to say for their justification, that they were of the same Country; that they were lately carried way by miraculous men, who shown them unheard of Wonders, and prayed them to relate them. The infatuated People, will not hear their Defence; but was going to throw them into the Fire, when the good man Agobard Bishop of Lions, who whilst he was a Monk, had obtained great Authority in that City, came running upon the News; and having heard the People's Accusation, and the Defence of the Accused, gravely pronounced that both were false. That it was not true that these Men came down out of the Air, and that what they affirmed to have seen there, was absolutely impossible.  
The People believed what good Father Agobard said, better than their own Eyes; was pacified, set at liberty the four Ambassadors of the Sylphs, and received with admiration the Book which Agobard wrote to confirm the Sentence he had pronounced. Thus was the Testimony of these four Witnesses made frivolous.  
In the mean time, seeing they escaped punishment, they were free to relate what they had seen; which was not altogether fruitless: for if you remember the Age of Charlemaigne abounded in Heroick Men. And this is a sign that the Woman who had been with the Sylphs, obtained Credit amongst the Ladies of those Times; and that by the grace of God many Sylphs were immortalised, many Sylphides became likewise Immortal, by the relation that these three Men gave of their Beauty; which obliged the people of that Age to apply themselves a little to Philosophy; and from thence have come all the Stories of Fairies which you find in the amorous Legends of the Age of Charlemaigne, and the succeeding. And these pretended Fairies were nothing else but Sylphides and Nymphs. Have you read the Stories of those Heroes and Fairies? No, Sir (said I.)  
I am sorry for that (replied he) for they would have given you some Notion of the State to which the Sages are resolved one day to reduce the World. Those Heroic Men, those Loves of Nymphs, those Journeys to the Earthly Paradise, those Palaces and Enchanted Groves, and all those Charming Adventures, are but a weak Emblem of the Life that the Sages leads, and what the World shall be, when Wisdom by their means shall reign therein▪ There shall be none but Heroes in it; the least of our Children shall have the might of Z●roaster, Apollonius, or Melchsedec; and most part of them shall be accomplished as the Children that Adam would have begotten on Eve, had he not sinned with her.  
Did you not tell me, Sir (said I interrupting him) that it was not the will of God that Adam and Eve should have had Children; and that Eve should have given herself only to Sylphs or Salamanders? It is true (said the Count) they should not have procreated the way they did. Your Cabal Sir (continued I) furnishes Man and Woman then with an Invention of Begetting Children after another manner than the common Method. Assuredly replied he.) Good now, pray teach me that, Sir (answered I.) You shall not know it too day, if you please (said he laughing) I'll revenge the Quarrel of the people of the Elements, because you have made so much difficulty to undeceive yourself of their pretended Devilry. I make no question but your panic fears are now over. I leave you therefore, that you may have time to meditate and deliberate in the presence of God, to which kind of Elementary Substances it will be most for his glory and your honour, that you bestow a share of your Immortality.  
In the mean time I'll go recollect myself a little, for the Discourse that you have put me upon making this night, to the Gnomes. Go (said I) explain to them some Chapter of Averro? I believe (said the Count) I may very well have a little touch at that; for I have a Design to preach to them the Excellency of Man, that I may work upon them to court our Alliance. And after Aristotle Averro holds two things which it is fit I should illustrate; the one concerning the Nature of the Mind, and the other about the Chief Good: He says, That there is but one created Mind, which is the Image of the uncreated; and that that Mind alone is sufficient for all Men. And as to the Chief Good, Averro says, It consists in the Conversation with Angels; which is not Cabalistick enough: For Man even in this life is created for the Enjoyment of God, as you shall one day know, and find by Experience, when you are listed among the Sages.  
Thus ended the Conference of the Count of Gabalis. He returned next day, and brought me the Discourse that he made to the Subterranean People: It is a wonderful Piece. I would publish it, with a Continuation of the Conferences that a Vicecountess and I had with that Great Man, were I sure that all my Readers had right thoughts, and would not take it amiss that I make myself merry with Fools. If I perceive that my Book is permitted to do the good that it may produce, and that I be not unjustly suspected to commend Secret Sciences, under pretext of making them ridiculous; I shall continue to please myself with my Count; and may suddenly publish another Tome.   
FINIS.   

A LETTER To my LORD of ****  
My LORD,  
YOU have always appeared to me so affectionate to your Friends, that I hope you will pardon the liberty I take in favours of the best of mine, to beseech your Lordship to have the goodness for him as to read his Book. I pretend not thereby to engage you in any of the Consequences that my Friend the Author may perhaps promise to himself from that; for Authors are apt to conceive great hopes. I have even told him that you make it your honour never to speak, but what you think; and that he is not to expect that you will lay aside so rare a Quality, and so new at Court, to say that his Book is good, if you find it bad; but it is my humble desire only to your Lordship, that you would have the goodness to decide a Controversy that we have had together. You needed not have studied so much my Lord, as to become a Prodigy of Knowledge, if you thought it not fit to expose yourself to be consulted preferably to Doctors. This is then the Dispute that I have with my Friend.  
I would have obliged him wholly to change the Form of his Work, the pleasant strain be handles it in, seems not at all proper for the Subject. The Cabal (I told him) is a serious Science, which many of my Friends study seriously; it ought therefore to be refuted the same way. Seeing all its Errors are about Divinity, and that is very difficult to make a serious Man laugh upon any Subject; it is most dangerous to droll in this, and it is much to be feared that Devotion may seem interested therein. A Cabalist must be made to speak like a Saint, else he acts his Part very ill; and if he speak like a Saint, by that apparent Sanctity he imposes upon weak Minds, and better persuades his Visions than all the Drollery that may be made on them, can refute them. To this my Friend answered with the Presumption that Authors have when they defend their Books; that if the Cabal be a serious Science, than none but Melancholic people apply themselves to it; and that having at first tried the Dogmatic Style on that Subject, he found himself so ridiculous in treating Fopperies seriously, that he judged it more proper to turn the Ridicule upon the Count Gabalis. The Cabal (said he) is one of those Chimaeras, which Men authorize, when they oppugn them gravely; and which should only be overthrown by Drolling. He is not ignorant of the Fathers, and therefore he cited to me Tertullian. You who know it better than he and I both, my Lord; judge if the Citation be false: Multa sunt risu digna revinci, ne gravitate adorentur. He says that Tertullian uses that pretty Sentence against the Valentinians, who were a kind of most Enthusiastic Cabalists.  
As to Devotion which comes always in play throughout this Work (he says) that a Cabalist must unavoidably speak of God: but it is happy, that in this Subject it is of a more unavoidable necessity, for preserving the Cabalistick Character, never to speak of God, but with extreme Veneration; so Religion can receive no blemish: and the weak Wits must be sillier than the Lord Gabalis, if they suffer themselves to be enchanted by that Extravagant Devotion; or if the Raillery that is put upon it, remove not the Charm.  
By these and many other Reasons which I shall not allege here, because I have a Mind your Lordship should be of my Opinion; my Friend pretends that he ought to write against the Cabal merrily. Reconcile us if you please, I hold it best to proceed against the Cabalists and all the Secret Sciences, by serious and vigorous Arguments. He saith that Truth is naturally brisk, and that it is far more powerful when it laughs: because an ancient Author, whom without doubt, you know, says in a place, which, considering the excellent Memory God hath endowed you with, you will certainly remember; Convenit Veritati ridere, quia laetans.  
He adds, That the Secret Sciences are dangerous, if they be not handled in a strain that may make them contemptible; exposing their ridiculous Mystery, and taking off People from losing time in the Study of them; by showing them the depth, and discovering the extravagancy thereof. Give Sentence, my Lord, these are our Reasons. I shall receive your Verdict with the respect which you know does always accompany the Zeal wherewith I am  
My LORD, Your Lordship's most humble and obedient Servant,   

A CATALOGUE Of some BOOKS sold by ROBERT HARFORD at the Angel in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange.  
GELL's Remains, being sundry Pious and Learned Notes and Observations on the New Testament; Opening and Explaining it: wherein Jesus Christ, as yesterday, too day, and the same for ever; is illustrated: by that learned and judicious Man Dr. R. Gell, late Rector of St. Mary Aldermanburic, London; in two Volumes Folio. Price 30 s.  
Christian Religions Appeal from the groundless prejudice of the Sceptics, to the Bar of Common Reason; wherein is proved, 1. That that the Apostles did not delude the World. 2. Nor were themselves deluded. 3. Scripture Matters of Faith have the best Evidence. 4. The Divinity of Scriptures is as demonstrable as the Being of a Deity. By John Smith Rector of St. Mary's in Colchester. Folio, price 12 s.  
The Psalms of David paraphrased and turned into English Verse, according to the Common Meeter; as they are usually sung in Parish Churches. By Miles Smith Octavo, price 5 s.  
The Ruin of Papacy, Or a Clear Display of Simony of the Romish Clergy; with a Circulatory Letter to the Fathers of those Virgins that desert their Families to turn Nuns: By the Learned Pen of that Famous Divine Peter du Moulin, Octavo, price 1 s.  
The Sphere of Marcus Manilius, made an English-Poem, with Learned Annotations and a large Appendix; reciting the Names of Ancient and Modern Astronomers: With something memorable of them. Illustrated with Copper Cuts. By Edward Sherburne Esq Folio, price 30 s.  
The Admired Piece of Physiognomy and Chyromancy, the Symmetrical Proportions and Signal Moles of the Body, fully and accurately explained; with their Natural Predictive Significations, both to Men and Women: Being Delightful and Profitable. With the Subject of Dreams made plain. Whereunto is added the Art of Memory. By Richard Saunders. Illustrated with Cuts and Figures. Folio, price bound 12 s.  
The Institution of the Laws and Ceremonies of the most Noble Order of the Garter, adorned with many Sculptures in Copper: By Elias Ashmole Esq Windsor Herald at Arms. Folio, price bound 30 s.  
Pharamont, That Famed Romance, being an Excellent History of France. In Twelve Parts. By the Author of Cleopa●ra and Cassandra. Folio, price bound 30 s.  
The New World of Words, or, A General English Dictionary: Containing the ●roper Significations and Etimologies of all Words derived from other Languages. Together with the Definitions of all ●hose Terms that conduce to the Understanding of any of the Arts and Sciences. The Fourth Edition, with many Useful Additions. Collected and Published by E. P. Folio.  
Longitude not found, or, An Answer to a Treatise written by Henry Bond Senior, showing 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 Magnetical Inclinatory Needle, By Peter Blackborrow Gent. price 22.  
Catalogus Stellarum Australium, sive Supplementum Catalogi Tichonici; exhibens Longitudines & Latitudines Stellarum Fixarum: Quae, prope Polum Antarcticum sitae, in Horizonte Vraniburgico Tichoni in conspicuae fuere, accurato Calculo ex Distantiis supputatas, & ad Annum 1677, etc. Authore Edmundo Halleio, e Colleg. Reg. Oxon. Quarto, price 1 s.  
The Jesuits Catechism according to Saint Ignatius Loyola Quarto, price 1 s.  
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The Privileges and Practices of Parliaments in England Collected out of the Common Laws of this Land. Commended to the High Court of Parliament. Quarto, price 6 d.  
The Accomplished Cook, or, The Mystery of the whole Art of Cookery. By Robert May in Octavo, price bound 5 s.  
A Mathematical Compendium, or, Useful Practices in Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Navigation; Embattelling and Quartering of Armies, Fortification and Gunnery; Gauging and Dialling: Explaining the Logarithms. With new Indices, Nepair's Rods or Bones: Making of Movements, and Application of Pendulums. With the Projection of the Sphere for an Universal Dial, etc. Collected out of the Notes and Papers of Sir Ionas Moor. By Nicholas Stephenson. The Second Edition, with many Additions. In Twelves.  
The Art of Wart, and the way that ●s at present practised in France. In two Parts. Octavo, price bound 2 s. 6 d.  
A Treatise of Arms and Engines of War, ●nriched with 20 Copper Plates; out of French, in Octavo, price bound 2 s. 6 d,  
The Military Duties of the Officers of Horse, containing the Exercises of the Cavalry, according to the present Practise of the Times. Illustrated with Cop●er Plates; Octavo price 2 s.  
Humane Prudence, or the several ways for a man to advance himself at Court. In Twelves, price bound 1 s.  
Indiculus Vniversalis, Or the Universe in Epitome: Wherein the Names of almost all the Works of Nature, of all Arts and Sciences, with their most necessary Terms, are in English, Latin, and French, Methodically and distinctly digested, etc. Composed at first in French and Latin, for the use of the Dauphin of France; by the Learned T. Pomey And now made English, by A. Lovel M. A. in Octavo.