626" Agrippa and his Dog. JUNE, 



to all posterity in his writings, as "omniumbonarum liter arum virtutumque 

 novercal His family at Louvain consisted of his wife, Paulina; Louvet, 

 a student of divinity, who boarded with him ; John Wierus, his domestic ; 

 an old woman, whose name has not come down to us ; Monsieur, the 

 black dog ; and Mademoiselle, the black bitch. Paulina was his second 

 wife, whom he had newly married : she was young and beautiful, and 

 enceinte for the first time a state which it appears she relished so much, 

 that she brought the philosopher four children in the first three years after 

 their marriage, one at a birth. It is surprising, by the way, that the demon- 

 hunters should not have suspected something amiss here ; although it is 

 reasonable to suppose that Agrippa himself might have been more inclined 

 to think his third wife (whom he divorced) a devil. As for John Wierus, 

 he is ready known to the learned ; the old woman is not worth talking of; 

 Mademoiselle was simply a female dog, although Moreri affirms that she 

 was a demon as well as the male ; but as for Louvet, the boarder, and 

 Monsieur the black dog, we must not dismiss them so easily. Louvet, a 

 young and lively Frenchman, had come from some country village, where 

 his education had been hitherto conducted, to attend the lectures of the 

 celebrated Cornelius Agrippa ; and had, soon after, the good fortune to 

 obtain entrance into the philosopher's house as a boarder. I do not know 

 whether his attention had been previously directed to the fashionable studies 

 of the period alchymy and magic ; or whether the very atmosphere of the 

 house, where so potent a master of these arts resided, had been able of itself 

 to produce a thirst in his naturally ardent mind alter mysterious and for- 

 bidden knowledge ; but so it was, that he had not been long domiciled 

 at Louvain, when his buoyancy of spirits entirely forsook him : he avoided 

 the society of the other students, and relinquished the pleasures and exer- 

 cises peculiar to his age ; he shut himself up in his little closet for whole 

 days together, poring over the ponderous tomes of the mystics, and losing 

 himself in their daring and romantic speculations. Like St. Augustine, in 

 his search after knowledge of another kind, " he went out of himself to 

 seek it in all things." Agrippa, in the mean time, was too deeply involved 

 in the intrigues and speculations that occupied so great a portion of his 

 eventful life, to pay much attention to his pupils. At this period, especially, 

 he seemed to be more than usually busy, and spent a greater part of his 

 time in his inner study, his sanctum sanctorum, which no other not 

 even John Wierus was allowed to enter. His manner was filled with 

 gloom and reserve not the studied reserve which implies suspicion of others, 

 and caution against one's-self but rather a total forgetfulness of the things 

 and persons that surround the soul with their palpable realities, and chain 

 it to the world ; he walked through the houso and through the streets like 

 a person in a dream, and mingled with his family and, though seldom, 

 with society like one with them, but not of them. Louvet gazed on his 

 master with a veneration and curiosity almost boundless. To hear his 

 voice to be addressed by him even with a common-place inquiry or com- 

 mand made the blood rush tumultuously to his heart ; to touch his clothes 

 as he passed, or his finger when handing him a book, sent a sudden thrill 

 through his frame, which it was impossible to refer either to pleasure or 

 pain. Even Paulina, in consequence of her connexion with this extra- 

 ordinary man, attracted a portion of his interest, which her youth and 

 beauty Vould have failed to inspire. She was taller than the generality of 

 women, and of a grave and lofty demeanour; pride sat enthroned on her 



