was a treatise on "Occult Philosophy" written by Henry 

 Cornelius Agrippa. This celebrated 



"Man of Parts 

 Who dived into the Secrets of all Arts," 



was Knight of the Empire, Doctor of both Laws, and held 

 the office of Secretary to Maximilian I., and of Councillor to 

 Charles V. He exercised the callings of physician, lawyer, 

 soldier, philosopher, historian, conjurer, astrologer and 

 alchemist at Cologne, Dole, Pavia, Metz, Freiburg, Brussels, 

 Bonn, Lyons and Grenoble, and in every place he commanded 

 the highest esteem of the learned and the influential. He 

 wrote that "natural magic is the active part of natural 

 philosophy which performs those things that are above 

 human reason. Magicians, the most active inquirers into 

 nature, oftentimes produce effects before the time ordained 

 by Nature, which therefore the Vulgar take for Miracles, 

 when they are notwithstanding only natural operations." 



Agrippa combined real erudition with gross superstition; 

 he was acquainted with the electrical properties of amber 

 and of jet, and with the magnetic power of the lodestone, 

 and yet he asserts that the latter power is destroyed by 

 onions. In another passage he exhibits his wisdom and 

 his folly thus: "It is well known that there is a certain 

 virtue in the lodestone by which it attracts iron and that 

 the diamond by its presence doth take away that virtue; so 

 also the stone asbestus being once fired is never extinguished. 

 A carbuncle shines in the dark; the stone aetites put above 

 the young fruit of woman or of plants strengthens them, but 

 being put under weakeneth. The jasper stauncheth blood, the 

 little fish echeneis stops ships; rhubarb expels choler; the 

 liver of the chameleon burned raiseth showers and thunders ; 

 the stone heliotrope dazzles the sight and makes him that 

 wears it invisible; the stone synochitis brings up infernal 



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