Note II.
_He sees the sign of the Macrocosm._
The macrocosm is a Greek word signifying the _big world_, the
universe, as contrasted with the _little world_, the microcosm or
man, made in the likeness of God, and therefore in the likeness of
his great manifestation, the universe. The terms were in familiar
use with the theosophists of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries; as may be seen from the title-page of a great
physico-metaphysical book by our countryman, Robert Fludd, printed
at Oppenheim 1617-19, "_Utriusque Cosmi, majoris scilicet et
minoris, Metaphysica, Physica atque technica Historia, in duo
volumina, secundum, Cosmi differentiam divisa; auctore Roberto
Fludd, alias de Fluctibus, Armigero, et in Medicina Doctore
Oxoniensi_," etc. The book is rare; but the curious may find a
beautiful copy in the Library of the Writers to the Signet,
Edinburgh.
Note III.
_The key of Solomon the wise_
_Is surest spell to exorcise._
Solomon was a magician among the Jews, for the same reason that
Roger Bacon has acquired that reputation amongst us--on account of
his great wisdom. The Jewish exorcists, of whom mention is made in
several passages of the New Testament (Matthew xii. 27), used to
invoke the evil spirit by the name of Solomon (Joseph. Antiq. 8, 2,
5, apud Bretschneider Dogmatik, vol. i. p. 764), and the cabalistic
talmudists were, of course, not negligent in taking advantage of
this popular belief for giving authority to their occult science of
numbers. Accordingly, we find Solomon, in the Middle Ages, looked
upon as the patriarch and patron-saint of the Magic Art; and many
curious books, under his name, were in common circulation among its
Professors. It is to the title of these books that the text alludes,
"_Clavicula Solomonis_," or Key of Solomon, supposed to be of
supreme power in compelling spirits to obey the will of man. They
are now become exceedingly rare, but some notice of them will be
found in Reichard's work _von Geistern_, and in Horst's
_Zauber-Bibliothek_.
Note IV.
_Let the Salamander glow,_
_Undene twine her crested wave,_
_Silphe into ether flow,_
_And Kobold vex him, drudging slave!_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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