54 Transactions of the 



them that envie my endeavours to do good.' Fludd, at first, 

 took no notice of the attack, deeming Foster, as he tells us, 

 not worth answering ; but finding one morning that Foster 

 had caused the title- page of the ' Hoplocrisma Spongus ' to 

 be nailed to each of his door-posts, he was so incensed 

 thereby, that he forthwith brought out a brochure of 212 

 pages in reply. It is entitled, ' The squeezing of Parson 

 Foster's sponge, ordained by him for the wiping away of the 

 weapon-salve. Wherein the sponge-bearer's immodest car- 

 riage and behaviour towards his brethren is detected; the 

 bitter flames of his slanderous reports are by the sharpe 

 vineger of truth corrected and quite extinguished ; and, 

 lastly, the vertuous validity of the sponge in wiping awa}^ of 

 the weapon-salve is crushed out and thus abolished.' On 

 the title-page Fludd pointedly introduces a verse from the 

 92nd Psalm, concerning the fall of the wicked man, and also 

 the somewhat cutting remark, ' Opera Dei, vir brutus et 

 staltus non intelligit.' It is to be confessed, however, that 

 he was a good deal provoked. Foster, after quoting several 

 men who had advocated the weapon-salve, and indirectly 

 introducing Fludd amongst them, says: 'I wonder at nothing 

 more than that Beelzebub was not in the number ;' to which 

 Fludd replies, ' A singular diabolical conceit. . . . Marry, I 

 will tell him why : if it had been true that the use of the 

 weaj)on-salve is witchcraft, and the users thereof witches and 

 conjurers (as he boldly saith), how, I pray you, should 

 Beelzebub be missing from our company ? . . . And this is 

 the reason that Mr. Foster and his like have failed to find 

 Beelzebub or the Devil in this number ; forasmuch as he is 

 nearer to them than they are aware of.' ' Dr. Fludd,' says 

 Foster, ' hath been written against for a magician, and I 

 svipj)ose this to be one cause why he hath printed his bookes 

 beyond the seas ;' to which Fludd replies, ' I sent them 

 beyond the seas because our home-borne printers demanded 

 of me five hundred pounds to print the first volume, and to 

 find the cuts in coj^per ; but beyond the seas it was printed 

 at no cost of mine, and that as I would wish ; and I had 

 sixteen copies sent me over, with forty pounds in gold as an 

 imexpected gratuity for it. How now. Master Foster, have 

 I not made you a lawful answer ? ' The book here alluded 

 to is the ' Historia Macrocosmi,' which has been discussed 

 at some length above. It is not surprising that five hundred 

 pounds was demanded for printing the volume, when we 

 observe the very large number of elaborate copper plates. 

 We cannot wonder that Fludd published his works abroad 



