LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 



And maye therfore in my judgement more woorthely be 

 cauled Michrocosmos , then eyther man or any other creature 

 that ever was made of corporall substance. Angelus Poli- 

 tianus in his epistells describeth an instrument cauled auto- 

 maton made in his tyme in the citie of Florence, observing 

 the exacte moving of Primum Mobile and Octava Sphcera, 

 with also the movinges of the 7 planetes in there spheres, in 

 all poyntes agreable to there moving in the heaven. Of the 

 like instrument also our Roger Bacon wrotte longe before in 

 his booke de Mirabili pot estate artis et naturae*, where he 

 writeth in this maner, Majus omnium figurationum et rerum 

 figuratarum est, ut cceleslia describerentur secundum suas lon- 

 gitudines et latitudines in fiaura corporali, qua moventur cor- 

 poraliter motu diurno, et hose valere[n\t regnum \unum~\ ho- 

 mini sapienti, ^c. The which instrument doubtlesse, all- 

 thowgh it be of a divine invention, yet dothe this Michrocos- 

 mos so far surmount it, as nature passeth arte, and as motus 

 animalis passeth motus violentus, for as the other is moved 

 only by waight or wynde inclosed (as is scene in clockes and 

 organs) so is this moved by the same spirite of life, wherby 

 not only the heaven, but also all nature, is moved: whose 

 mover is God hymselfe, as saithe St. Paule, Ipsus est in quo 

 vivimuSy movemur, et sumus; as also Aristotle, Plato, and 

 Philo, in there bookes De Mundo, do affirme ; and especially 

 Marcus Manilius in Astronomicis ad Augustum Caesarem, 

 writing thus : 



Hoc opus immensi constructum corpore mundi, 

 Membraque naturae diversa condita forma, 

 Ae'ris atque ignis terrae pelagique jacentis, 

 Vis animae divina regit ; sacroque meatu 

 Conspirat Deus, et tacita ratione gubernat,f &c. 

 Item Lucanus : 



Acre libratum vacuo quae sustinet orbem, 

 Totius pars magna JovisJ. 



And wheras the autoure that describeth the Michrocosmos 

 affirmeth that the Chaos therof is materia Lapidis Philoso- 

 phorum (which is also Chaos, vel omnium, vel prima materia 

 mundi majoris) it seemeth to agre with that Cornelius Agrippa 

 hathe written in his seconde booke De occulta philosophia, in 

 scala unitatis, where he wryteth thus : Lapis philosophorum 

 est unum subjectum et instrumentum omnium virtutum natura- 

 C Hum et transnaturalium, $c. And that this greate and divine 

 secreate of this Michrocosmos maye not seeme incredible unto 



* Edit. 1542, fol. 43, v. 



f Manilii Astronomicon, lib. i. 1. 247-251. 



J Lucani Pharsalia, lib. v. 1. 94-95. 



