CENTUUY X. 511 



carried, Will do good, it may help his imagination : 

 but the belief in a man is far the more active. But 

 howsoever, all authority must be out of a man s self, 

 turned, as was said, either upon an art, or upon a 

 man : and where authority is from one man to 

 another, there the second must be ignorant, and not 

 learned, or full of thoughts ; and such are, for the 

 most part, all witches and superstitious persons, 

 whose beliefs, tied to their teachers and traditions, are 

 no whit controlled either by reason or experience ; 

 and upon the same reason, in magic, they use for the 

 most part boys and young people, whose spirits easili- 

 est take belief and imagination. 



Now to fortify imagination, there be three ways : 

 the authority whence the belief is derived ; means to 

 quicken and corroborate the imagination ; and means 

 to repeat it and refresh it. 



948. For the authority, we have already spoken : 

 as for the second, namely, the means to quicken and 

 corroborate the imagination ; we see what hath been 

 used in magic, if there be in those practices any thing 

 that is purely natural, as vestments, characters, words, 

 seals ; some parts of plants, or living creatures ; 

 stones, choice of the hour, gestures and motions ; also 

 incenses and odours, choice of society, which in- 

 creaseth imagination ; diets and preparations for some 

 time before. And for words, there have been ever 

 used, either barbarous words, of no sense, lest they 

 should disturb the imagination, or words of simili 

 tude, that may second and feed the imagination ; and 

 this was ever as well in heathen charms, as in charms 



