624 Agrippa and his Dog. 



external character and form of the individual of the species possessed by 

 Agrippa, and those of the spirits which are compelled to appear, according 

 to the best writers on magic, when summoned under the sign Mercury 

 the planet, as I am led to think, which governed the destinies of the very 

 mercurial genius of whom I am discoursing ; and, to shew that I have no 

 inclination to twist matters to my own purpose, I will consent to receive 

 the description of the dog from the pen of John Wierus, Agrippa' s own 

 servant, who did every thing in his power to prove that*he was simply a 

 dog, and nothing more. But let me, in the first place, caution the reader 

 who has not entered deeply into these controversies, not to be too hasty in 

 pinning his opinion to the sleeve of John Wierus. That John enjoyed a 

 better opportunity than most people of ascertaining the truth of the matter, 

 I readily allow; but he had also a more cogent reason for disguising it. He 

 was not merely the domestic of Agrippa, but also his scholar, and studied 

 frequently at the same table with him ; and, setting feelings of affection 

 and gratitude aside, had his master been burnt for a wizard, is it not some- 

 thing more than probable that John would have been at least scorched by 

 the fagot? "I was intimately acquainted," says he, "with this black 

 dog, who was of a middle size, and called by the French name of Mon- 

 sieur. He was a real dog; and his master gave him for a companion, in 

 my presence, a bitch of the same colour, size, and kind, called Made- 

 moiselle." Now let us compare this with the description in the fourth 

 book of the " Occult Philosophy," supposed by some, and denied by 

 others, to have been written by Agrippa himself but, at any rate, the 

 work, undoubtedly, of a master-hand under the head, 



" Familiar Forms for a Spirit of Mercury. 



" They appear in a body of middle stature cold, liquid, and moist ; 

 their motion, silver-coloured clouds ; for their sign they bring fear and 

 horror to him that calls them ;" and among the forms enumerated" a 

 dog." 



Here we find it agreed, that the form of Agrippa's companion and that 

 of a spirit of Mercury, the star of his nativity, was a dogand a mifcJ !e- 

 sized dog and a water-dog (for this Ls proved, on the part of Monsieur, 

 by the manner of his death, as I shall afterwards shew) ; while, by the 

 words " cold, liquid, and moist," as applied to a dog in the Occult Phi- 

 losophy, we can understand nothing else. As for the motion, or mode of 

 appearance, when called by magical incantations, and the fear and horror 

 they bring for a sign to him that calls them, we shall come to these anon. 

 The colour of the canine apparition not being mentioned, signifies nothing ; 

 for those who are in the least acquainted with the art, are aware that a 

 dog-devil must be black. A white dog is quite another thing, as St. Ber- 

 nard's mother knew, to her great happiness, when she dreamt, imme- 

 diately before his birth, that she was delivered of one. But, while thus 

 giving the reader to understand my private opinion on the controversy, 

 viz. that Agrippa was in reality a magician, and had, by arts unknown to 

 common men, overstepped the usual bounds of human knowledge and 

 dominion, as they existed in that age, it is necessary to enter into some 

 explanation of the words I use. 



Bodin defines a sorcerer, " Sorcier est celui qui par may ens diaboliques 

 sciemment s'efforce de parvenir a quelque chose ;" while Plato tells us 

 that " the art of magic is the art of worshipping God." Magic and sor- 

 cery are thus very different things ; almost as different as the treatises on 



