Here we have the four elemental spirits, of which Mr. Pope has discoursed so learnedly to Mrs. Anabella Fermor in his preface to "The Rape of the Lock." With Silphs and Salamanders I may suppose the English reader sufficiently acquainted, as they have been almost naturalised on British ground; Undenes and Kobolds still remain more closely attached to their German soil. The former, sometimes called _Wasser-Nixen_, are a sort of Teutonic Nymphs or Sirens, familiar now to a large class of English readers, from Heine's ballad of the _Lurley_, and Fouque's beautiful extravaganza of _Undine_; the latter, seemingly from a Greek original, κόβαλος, well known to the readers of Aristophanes, are called /gnomes/ by Pope, and appear as _brownies_ in many a Scotch ballad. For special details of their character and proceedings the German work of Henning's _von Geistern_ may be consulted, p. 800, and Horst's _Zauber-Bibliothek_, vol. iv. p. 250. Note V. _Bend thee this sacred_ _Emblem before,_ _Which the powers of darkness_ _Trembling adore._ "Jam experimento comprobatum est nullum malum dæmonem, nullum inferiorum virtutum, in his quæ vexant aut obsident homines, posse huic nomini resistere quando nomen /Jesu/ debitâ, pronunciatione illis proponitur venerandum; nec solum nomen, sed etiam illius signaculum /Crucem/ pavent."--_Agrippa de Occult. Philos._, lib. iii. c. 12. Note VI. _The pentagram, stands in your way._ "Inter alios plurimos characteres, duo tantum sunt veri et præcipui, quorum primus constat ex duobus trigonis super se invicem ita depictis ut Hexagonum constituant. Alterum dicunt esse priori potentiorem et efficaciorem et esse pentagonon."--_Paracelsus de Characteribus apud Horst, Z. B._ vol. iii. p. 74. The figure thus accurately described by the oracular Bombastus occurs almost as frequently as the sign of the cross, in almost all the old books on magic, and is drawn thus: [image - pentagram] The Platonists (let Proclus serve for an example) seem to have derived from the Pythagoreans a strange mixture of religious mysticism with a great enthusiasm for the mathematical sciences; and this same pentagonal figure very probably derives not a little of its supreme efficacy from the fact of its having been transmitted to us from the most ancient times. Poetry is not the only thing that receives a sacredness from age. Note VII. _When left you Rippach? you, must have been pressed_ _For time. Supped you with Squire Hans by the way?_ "Rippach is a village near Leipzig; and to ask for Hans von Rippach, a fictitious personage, was an old joke amongst the students. The ready reply of Mephistopheles, indicating no surprise, shows Siebel and Altmayer that he is up to it. /Hans/ is the German _Jack_."--/Hayward/. Note VIII. _Cat-Apes._