120 Bacon 



it. And herein comes in crookedly and dangerously a 

 palliation of a great part of Ceremonial Magic. For it may 

 be pretended that Ceremonies, Characters, and Charms, do 

 work, not by any tacit or sacramental contract with evil 

 spirits, but serve only to strengthen the imagination of him 

 that useth it : as images are said by the Roman church to 

 fix the cogitations, and raise the devotions of them that 

 pray before them. But for mine own judgment, if it be 

 admitted that imagination hath power, and that Ceremonies 

 fortify imagination, and that they be used sincerely and 

 intentionally for that purpose ; l yet I should hold them 

 unlawful, as opposing to that first edict which God gave 

 unto man, In sudore vultus comedes panem tuum. 2 For they 

 propound those noble effects, which God hath set forth unto 

 man to be bought at the price of labour, to be attained by a 

 few easy and slothful observances. Deficiencies in these 

 knowledges I will report none, other than the general defici- 

 ence, that it is not known how much of them is verity, and 

 how much vanity. 3 



The Knowledge which respecteth the faculties of the 

 mind of man is of two kinds ; the one respecting his Under 

 standing and Reason, and the other his Will, Appetite, and 

 Affection; whereof the former produceth Position or 

 Decree, the latter Action or Execution. It is true that the 

 Imagination is an agent or nuncius, in both provinces, both 

 the judicial and the ministerial. For Sense sendeth over 

 to Imagination before Reason have judged: and Reason 

 sendeth over to Imagination before the decree can be acted : 

 for Imagination ever precedeth Voluntary Motion. Saving 

 that this Janus of Imagination hath differing faces : for the 

 face towards Reason hath the print of Truth, but the face 

 towards Action hath the print of Good; which nevertheless 

 are faces, 



Quales decet esse sororum. 4 



Neither is the Imagination simply and only a messenger; 



1 Ceremonies. The word does not now convey quite the same 

 sense ; for in these passages Bacon refers to invocation of spirits : 

 saying (as we gather also from the Latin) that they are illicit, though , 

 used only as physical remedies without any incantation. 



2 Gen. iii. 19. 



8 In the Latin, two desiderata are noticed ; Voluntary Motion, 

 and Sense and the Sensible: together with a curious discourse on 

 the Form of Light. 4 Ovid. Metam. ii. 14. 



