258 PARACELSUS 



will not require them. But those who condemn the 

 ancient occultists for their supposed ignorance and super- 

 stition would do well to remember that it requires a 

 vastly greater amount of credulity to believe that great 

 reformers in science and men possessed of wisdom, such 



but * clear water ' ; but whenever the Abbd knocked three times at the seal 

 upon the mouth of the bottles, speaking at the same time some Hebrew 

 words, the water in the bottles began to turn blue (respectively red), and 

 the blue and the red spirits would show their faces, first very small, but 

 growing in proportions until they attained the size of an ordinary human 

 face. The face of the blue spirit was beautiful, like an angel, but that of 

 the red one bore a horrible expression. 



" These beings were fed by the Count about once every three or four 

 days with some rose-coloured substance which he kept in a silver box, and 

 of which he gave to each spirit a pill of about the size of a pea. Once 

 every week the water had to be removed, and the bottles filled again with 

 pure rain-water. This change had to be accomplished very rapidly, be- 

 cause during the few moments that the spirits were exposed to the air 

 they closed their eyes, and seemed to become weak and unconscious, as if 

 they were about to die. But the blue spirit was never fed, nor was the 

 water changed ; while the red one received once a week a thimbleful of 

 fresh blood of some animal (chicken), and this blood disappeared in the 

 water as soon as it was poured into it, without colouring or troubling it. 

 The water containing the red spirit had to be changed once every two or 

 three days. As soon as the bottle was opened it became dark and cloudy, 

 and emitted an odour of rotten eggs. 



"In the course of time these spirits grew to be about two spans long, 

 and their bottles were now almost too small for them to stand erect ; 

 the Count therefore provided them with appropriate seats. These bottles 

 were carried to the place where the Masonic Lodge of which the Count was 

 the presiding Master met, and after each meeting they were carried back 

 again. During the meetings the spirits gave prophecies about future 

 events that usually proved to be correct. They knew the most secret 

 things, but each of them was only acquainted with such things as be- 

 longed to his station : for instance, the king could talk politics, the monk 

 about religion, the miner about minerals, &c. ; but the blue and the red 

 spirits seemed to know everything. (Some facts proving their clairvoyant 

 powers are given in the original.) 



" By some accident the glass containing the monk fell one day upon the 

 floor, and was broken. The poor monk died after a few painful respira- 

 tions, in spite of all the efforts of the Count to save his life, and his body 

 was buried in the garden. An attempt to generate another one, made by 

 the Count without the assistance of the Abb^, who had left, resulted in 

 failure, as it produced only a small thing like a leech, which had very 

 little vitality, and soon died. 



"One day the king escaped from his bottle, which had not been pro- 

 perly sealed, and was found by Kammerer sitting on the top of the bottle 



