Clifton College Scientific Society. 55 



after the above statement ; and it also indicates to ns that 

 they were far more prized on the Continent than in his own 

 country. After vindicating himself, and disavowing all con- 

 nection with magic and necromancy, Fludd attacks Foster's 

 statements about other matters. ' I will proceed now,' he 

 says, 'to the grea.test assault, wherein his sponge rubbeth 

 very hard against my text, but prevaileth no more than they 

 which go about to wash away the colour of a black-moore.' 

 He then enters into an elaborate statement to prove that 

 ' devils have aery bodies allotted to them in their creation,' 

 which Foster had denied. And thus the foolish controversy 

 is carried on to the end. It is surprising to observe what an 

 amount of erudition is brought to bear upon it from both 

 sides ; an assertion is rarely made without a quotation to 

 back it up, Foster preferring the Fathers of the Church, 

 notably SS. Augustine and Jerome, while Fludd goes back 

 to the ancient Greeks and to Hermes Trismegistus. They 

 both quote the Scriptures profusely — Foster because he is a 

 clergyman, Fludd because he knows that arguments drawn 

 from that source will most prevail Avith a Churchman. It 

 may be here remarked that Fludd invariably shows a most 

 intimate acquaintance with the Bible, which from beginning 

 to end of his numerous works he never fails to quote when 

 an opportunity for so doing arises. 



It is, of course, impossible here to attempt any detailed 

 analysis of the authorship of the prominent tenets of Fludd's 

 philosophy. We have seen from the list of names given 

 above, how great and varied were the sources whence he 

 drew his oi)inions. His cosmogony is closely related to that 

 described as Chaldsean, in the writings of Psellus, Sextus 

 Empiricus, Porphyry, Jamblichus, and Proclus, and in the 

 works of the same period which bear the name of Hermes 

 Trismegistus. His astrology is mainly compiled from the 

 Middle Age works on the su.bject, which are themselves 

 based on Arabic works; the various views of the Eosicrucians 

 also find expression. His iatromathematics is obviously taken 

 from one of the works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, 

 under whose name was published, in 1532, a treatise entitled 

 ' larpofxadrifiaTLKa rj irapa KaraKXiasws voaovvrwv TrpoyvcoariKa 

 iv TTjs ixaOt^ixaTLKTjs iTna-rrjfirjs.' His anatomy is taken mainly 

 from Vesalius, and his medicine from Paracelsus and his 

 followers, but it is probable that a careful and unwearied 

 observer like Fludd added a good deal of new matter in this 

 direction, since it was the subject of his profession. His 

 geometry comes mainly from Euclid, music from Guido of 



