THE SECOND BOOK 269 



which hold so much of imagination and belief, as this 

 degenerate Natural Magic, Alchemy, Astrology, and the 

 like, that in their propositions the description of the means 

 is ever more monstrous than the pretence or end. For it 

 is a thing more probable, that he that knoweth well the 

 natures of Weight, of Colour, of Pliant and Fragile in 

 respect of the hammer, of Volatile and Fixed in respect of 

 the fire, and the rest, may superinduce upon some metal 

 the nature and form of gold by such mechanique as 

 belongeth to the production of the natures afore rehearsed, 

 than that some grains of the medicine projected should in 

 a few moments of time turn a sea of quicksilver or other 

 material into gold. So it is more probable, that he that 

 knoweth the nature of arefaction, the nature of assimilation 

 of nourishment to the thing nourished, the manner of 

 increase and clearing of spirits, the manner of the depreda- 

 tions which spirits make upon the humours and solid parts, 

 shall by ambages of diets, bathings, anointings, medicines, 

 motions, and the like, prolong life or restore some degree 

 of youth or vivacity, than that it can be done with the use 

 of a few drops or scruples of a liquor or receipt. To con- 

 clude therefore, the true Natural Magic, which is that 

 great liberty and latitude of operation which dependeth 

 upon the knowledge of Forms, I may report deficient, as 

 the relative thereof is. To which part, if we be serious 

 and incline not to vanities and plausible discourse, besides 

 the deriving and deducing the operations themselves from 

 Metaphysic, there are pertinent two points of much pur- 

 pose, the one by way of preparation, the other by way 

 of caution. The first is, that there be made a Calendar 

 resembling an inventory of the estate of man, containing all 

 the inventions (being the works or fruits of nature . 



^ . Inventanum 



or art) which are now extant and whereof ma"n is opumkuma- 

 already possessed ; out of which doth naturally * 

 result a note, what things are yet held impossible, or not 

 invented; which calendar will be the more artificial and 

 serviceable, if to every reputed impossibility you add what 

 thing is extant which cometh the nearest in degree to that 

 impossibility; to the end that by these optatives and 



