LIB. II. 31. 225 



imitetur et fere aemuletur pell em sive membranam ali- 

 cujus animalis, aut folium alicujus vegetabilis, et hujus- 

 modo opificia naturae. Nam neque fragilis est, ut 

 vitrum ; neque textilis, ut pannus ; sed habet fibras 

 certe, non fila distincta, omnino ad modum.materiarum 

 naturalium : ut inter artificiales materias vix invenia- 

 tur simile aliquid, sed sit plane monodicum. Atque 

 pracferenda sane sunt in artificialibus ea, qua? maxime 

 accedunt ad imitationem naturae, aut e contrario earn 

 potenter regunt et invertunt. 



Rursus, inter ingenia et manus hominis, non prorsus 

 contemnenda sunt pra?stigia? et jocularia. Nonnulla 

 enim ex istis, licet sint usu levia et ludicra, tamen in- 

 formatione valida esse possunt. 



Postremo, neque omnino omittenda sunt supersti- 

 tiosa, et (prout vocabulum sensu vulgari accipitur) 

 magica 84 . Licet enim hujusmodi res sint in immen- 

 sum obruta? grandi mole mendaciorum et fabularum ; 

 tamen inspiciendum paulisper, si forte subsit et lateat 

 in aliquibus earum aliqua operatic naturalis : ut in 

 fascino ; et fortificatione imaginations ; et consensu 

 ferum ad distans ; et transmissione impressionum a 

 spiritu ad spiritum, non minus quam a corpore ad cor 

 pus 85 ; et similibus. 



84 Bacon never shews himself perhaps; or at any rate only par- 

 without hopes even from tricks and tially affecting it : and they may 

 magical sleight. See I. 85. He indicate a condition of Physical 

 hoped after the discovery of Form, affections as yet but little no- 

 for a higher kind of Magia of which ticed, The same is more perfectly, 

 the ordinary Magic was a shadow, though less strikingly, seen in &quot;Mes- 

 See supr. II. 9. meric&quot; slumbers. (I do not mean 



85 These remarks might have been in &quot;Clairvoyance,&quot; or any such 

 written of the Modern wonders of prcEstigice ; but in the mere power 

 &quot; Electrobiology,&quot; &c. which seem of so affecting a person s Nervous 

 to be a certain fascination of the System as to produce slumber.) It 

 whole Nervous System, and of the is strange that in our age we should 

 Memory without affecting theWill, return to the problem of old so 



Q 



