Clifton College Scientific Society. 49 



detail. It is entitled Utriusque Cosmi majoris scilicet et minoris 

 Metaphysica, Physica, atque Technica. Historia, and is in the 

 form of a closely-printed folio, full of copper plates. It is 

 dedicated to God, as was not uncommon at a somewhat earlier 

 period — ' Deo optimo maximo, Creatori meo, incomprehensi- 

 bili, sit gloria, laus, honor, benedictio, et victoria triumphalis, 

 in secula seculorum. Amen.' Then follows a dedication 

 to James I., in language which must have been rather too 

 laudatory even for that vainest of monarchs. After this, we 

 have one of the large emblematical designs in which mysti- 

 cal writers took so much delight ; a design in which the 

 earth forms the centre of a circle, while cherubim and 

 all the host of heaven form the circumference. Immediately 

 around the earth we observe three circles, within which 

 appear respectively typical products of the animal, vegetable, 

 and mineral kingdoms, as adapted by art to the uses of man- 

 kind ; a fourth circle contains types of the liberal arts, a 

 fifth of the mineral kingdom, a sixth of the vegetable king- 

 dom, a seventh of the animal kingdom. The eighth circle 

 represents the sphere of air, the ninth that of fire, the tenth 

 to the sixteenth the cii'cles of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the 

 Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The seventeenth circle en- 

 closes a quantity of stars, and is called Goelum Stellatum, and 

 the three outer circles are fringed with tongues of flame, and 

 contain cherubim and seraphim. At the limit of the outer- 

 most circle, the hand of God is seen projecting from a cloud, 

 and leading by a chain Nature, personated by a human form 

 bearing the sun and moon and girt with stars, while from 

 her hand depends a chain by which she leads an ape seated 

 upon the earth. The ape personates art; for Fludd else- 

 where says, ' Natura, et ejus simia quam artem af»pellamus.' 

 It can be well understood in reference to this emblematical 

 figure, that although the world is not more than an inch in 

 diameter, the whole figure terminated by the circle of the 

 cherubim extends over more than a foot. It is, in good truth, 

 a wonderful mass of uncouth symbolism, and many such are 

 found in the writings of Fludd, and of the mystics of his 

 school. After the symbolic design, the work begins in good 

 earnest with an account of the creation, and of the construc- 

 tion of the macrocosm ; the nature of the empyrean, and the 

 form of the elements. The third book (or ' chapter,' as we 

 should call it now-a-days), ' De Musica Mundana,' is essen- 

 tially Pythagorean in character. In it Fludd endeavours to 

 prove that unity and rhythm prevail in all things, and we 



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