THE SECOND BOOK 287 



illumination from the foreknowledge of God and spirits ; 

 unto which the same regiment doth likewise conduce. 

 For the retiring of the mind within itself is the state which 

 is most susceptible of divine influxions ; save that it is 

 accompanied in this case with a fervency and elevation 

 (which the ancients noted by fury), and not with a repose 

 and quiet, as it is in the other. 



Fascination is the power and act of imagination, inten- 

 sive upon other bodies than the body of the imaginant : 

 for of that we spake in the proper place : wherein the 

 school of Paracelsus and the disciples of pretended Natural 

 Magic have been so intemperate, as they have exalted the 

 power of the imagination to be much one with the power 

 of miracle-working faith ; others that draw nearer to 

 probability, calling to their view the secret passages of 

 things, and especially of the contagion that passeth from 

 body to body, do conceive it should likewise be agreeable 

 to nature that there should be some transmissions and 

 operations from spirit to spirit, without the mediation of 

 the senses ; whence the conceits have grown (now almost 

 made civil) of the Mastering Spirit, and the force of con- 

 fidence, and the like. Incident unto this is the inquiry 

 how to raise and fortify the imagination ; for if the 

 imagination fortified have power, then it is material to 

 know how to fortify and exalt it. And herein comes in 

 crookedly and dangerously a palliation of a great part of 

 Ceremonial Magic. For it may be pretended that Cere- 

 monies, Characters, and Charms, do work not by any tacit 

 or sacramental contract with evil spirits, but serve only to 

 strengthen the imagination of him that useth it ; as images 

 are said by the Roman church to fix the cogitations and 

 raise the devotions of them that pray before them. But 

 for mine own judgment, if it be admitted that imagination 

 hath power, and that Ceremonies fortify imagination, and 

 that they be used sincerely and intentionally for that pur- 

 pose ; yet I should hold them unlawful, as opposing to 

 that first edict which God gave unto man, In sudore vultus 

 comedes panem tuum. For they propound those noble 

 effects which God hath set forth unto man to be bought 



