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THE OCCULT SCIENCES. 



The occult sciences had maintained their prestige up to the dawn of the 

 Renaissance ; but they were cultivated at that period by men of genius, 

 whose only aim was the love of science, and all of whom came to a miserable 

 end, though they were vain enough to believe that they were in direct 

 communication with spirits and demons. Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim, 

 who was generally looked upon as an emissary of Satan, and who was merely 

 a learned expounder of the doctrine of the ancient Gnostics, was always 



Fig. 163. The Angel, holding the Keys of Hell, enchains the Devil, in the shape of a Dragon, in 

 the Pit. Miniature from a Commentary on the Apocalypse. Manuscript of the Twelfth 

 Century. In the Library of M. Ambrose Firmin-Didot, Paris. 



accompanied, it was said, by two evil spirits in the shape of two black dogs. 

 Paracelsus, who was believed to have imprisoned his familiar spirit in the 

 pommel of his sword, boasted that he could create dwarfs, whom he animated 

 with his archeus (or principle of heat) as a substitute for the soul, and yet 

 he ended his days in a hospital. Cardan himself, that wonderful philosopher 

 who had studied and dived deep into all branches of sciences, also claimed 



