30 BOOKS OF SECRETS. 



d'Holhach, was published at Paris in 1752, and finally the English version 

 was printed privately at the Middlehill press in a ridiculous folio in 1826. 

 There are modern works on glass by Sauzay, Peligot and others. 



Among the older writers, Babington, Nye, Hanzelet, Jones, have given 

 receipts for fireworks, and there are two or three on the same subject in 

 Dutch. 



On a totally different subject from dyeing, Gioanventura Rosetti, the 

 author of " Plictho " above mentioned, published a little book in 1555 and 

 again in 1560. It is entitled " Notandissimi Secreti de I'arte profumatorio," 

 and in it he gives receipts for preparing oils, waters, pastes, muscardines, 

 and what not, and all for the use of ladies. 



This art was a favourite one and it would be easy to cite examples of 

 its literature from the days of Mercurialis, Liebaut, Le Fournier, to 

 Hugh Plat and his " Delights for Ladies," " The French Perfumer," 

 Erresalde (De la Serre), Marinello, Jeamson and his " Artificial Embellish- 

 ments," and others down to Lola Montez and the present time. It is but 

 a few years since I picked up at the bookstall at Dover Station a new 

 pamphlet on the Secrets of the Toilet for one penny sterling. There have 

 been others since then. 



While some of the topics touched upon have been secret enough, 

 the most sombre quarter is occupied by books on magic, and especially 

 black magic. Luridly conspicuous among these is the popular French 

 "Dragon Rouge," and the secrets of Albertus Parvus, Le petit Albert, 

 where one can find how to fabricate the hand of glory which endows 

 its possessor with strange powers. There are the extraordinary revelations 

 contained in the " Magick of Kiranus, King of Persia, " and the 

 " Trinum Magicum " of Longinus. The volume on Occult Philosophy by 

 Cornelius Agrippa, which is full of mysteries, is less a treatise on magic 

 than an early attempt to construct a speculative Natural Philosophy, and 

 similar efforts were made by Cardan, Baptista Porta, Athanasius Kircher, 

 Hernando Castrillo, Zimara and others, who styled their subject Magia 



