48 Transactions of the 



influenced the one by the other. This system of the world 

 was revealed, according to Fludd, by the Deity to the first 

 man, and by him transmitted to the patriarchs and Moses. 

 The three great philosophers of antiquity — Pythagoras, 

 Plato, and Hermes Trismegistus — adopted it from the Bible, 

 but made mauy alterations in reproducing it. Aristotle, on 

 the other hand, was not acquainted with the sacred waitings : 

 his books are full of follies and errors, and he has been the 

 cause of infinite heresies. It can well be understood that 

 these assertions were not allowed to remain unattacked, and 

 Fludd numbered amongst his opponents Kepler, Mersennus, 

 and Gassendus, notably the latter, whose ' Exercitatio in 

 Fluddanam Philosophiam ' Avas replied to in considerable 

 detaU by Pludd. 



It will be noticed above that Fludd speaks of Hermes 

 Trismegistus as one of the three greatest philosophers of 

 antiquity ; and from the frequency with which he quotes 

 him, I should be inclined to think that he is considered the 

 greatest of the three. Hermes Trismegistus is often con- 

 founded with the Egyptian God Thoth, the inventor of 

 numbers and letters, but they are distinct. According to 

 Clemens Alexandrinus, Hermes was an Egyptian, and the 

 author of forty-two books, which his countrymen treated 

 with the most profound respect, and were wont to carry in 

 their religious processions. Thirty-six of these (including 

 four on astrology) contained all the philosophy of Egypt; 

 while the remaining six treated of medicine, anatomy, and 

 the cm-e of diseases. In the temple of Hermes at Pselcis, he 

 is represented with a staff having a snake turned round it ; 

 from which emblem the Caduceus of Mercury may have been 

 derived. Some make Hermes a priest and philosopher who 

 lived a little after the time of Moses ; others a contemporary 

 of Osiris. However all this may be, it is certain that several 

 books appeared during the middle ages, which claimed 

 Hermes Trismegistus as their author ; and it is equally cer- 

 tain that they were written by Neo-Platonists and Gnostics 

 during the early centuries of the Christian era. Fludd has 

 drawn largely upon the supposed works of Hermes ; his cos- 

 mogony is nearly the same as that of Hermes, and much of 

 the supernatural machinery which he introduces is derived 

 from the same source. From this cause, the philosophy of 

 Fludd is strongly tinctured with I^eo-Platonism. 



I am inclined to regard, as Fludd's principal work, the 

 ' Historia Macrocosmi,' which was published at Oppenheim 

 in 1617 and 1618, and which we will consider somewhat in 



