"Some Characteristics of Mediaeval Thought," and the two essays on Alchemy, have appeared in _The Journal of the Alchemical Society_. In others I have utilised material I have contributed to _The Occult Review_, to the editor of which journal my thanks are due for permission so to do. I have also to express my gratitude to the Rev. A. H. COLLINS, and others to be referred to in due course, for permission here to reproduce illustrations of which they are the copyright holders. I have further to offer my hearty thanks to Mr B. R. ROWBOTTOM and my wife for valuable assistance in reading the proofs. H. S. R. BLETCHLEY, BUCKS, _December_ 1919. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE........................... ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.................... xiii 1. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDIAEVAL THOUGHT......... 1 2. PYTHAGORAS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY............... 8 3. MEDICINE AND MAGIC..................... 25 4. SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING BIRDS .............. 34 5. THE POWDER OF SYMPATHY: A CURIOUS MEDICAL SUPERSTITION.. 47 6. THE BELIEF IN TALISMANS.................. 57 7. CEREMONIAL MAGIC IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.......... 87 8. ARCHITECTURAL SYMBOLISM..................111 9. THE QUEST OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE............121 10. THE PHALLIC ELEMENT IN ALCHEMICAL DOCTRINE.........149 11. ROGER BACON: AN APPRECIATION...............183 12. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS..................193 {the LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS are incomplete and raw OCR output!} PAGE 46. Symbolic Alchemical Design from Mutus Liber (1677). PLATE: 25, to face p.176 47. Symbolic Alchemical Design illustrating the Work of Woman, from MAIER's Atalanta Fugiens...,, 26,,, 178 48. Symbolic Alchemica Design, Hermaphrodite, from MAIER's Atalanta Fugiens..,, 27,,, 180 49. ROGER BACON presenting a Book to a King, from a Fifteenth Century Miniature in the Bodleian Library, Oxford...,, 28,,, 184 50. ROGER BACON, from a Portrait in Knole Castle..,, 29,,, 188 51. BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE, from an engraved Portrait by ROBERT WHITE....30...194 52. HENRY MORE, from a Portrait by DAVID LOGGAN, engraved ad vivum, 1679 ...,, 31,,, 198 53. RALPH CUDWORTH, from an engraved Portrait by VERTUE, after LOGGAN, forming the Frontispiece to CUDWORTH's Treatise Concerning Morality (1731) ,, 32,,, 3~ BYGONE BELIEFS I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDAEVAL THOUGHT IN the earliest days of his upward evolution man was satisfied with a very crude explanation of natural phenomena--that to which the name "animism" has been given. In this stage of mental development all the various forces of Nature are personified: the rushing torrent, the devastating fire, the wind rustling the forest leaves--in the mind of the animistic savage all these are personalities, spirits, like himself, but animated by motives more or less antagonistic to him.