[50] The “Natural Magick” is divided into what is called twenty Books, equivalent really to chapters, and they receive various headings according to their contents, but the twentieth Porta calls “Chaos,” and he explains it by saying: “I determined from the beginning of my Book to unite Experiments that are contained in all Natural Sciences, but by my business that called me off, my mind was hindered, so that I could not accomplish what I attended. Since, therefore, I could not do what I would, I must be willing to do what I can. Therefore, I shut up in this Book those Experiments that could be included in no Classes, which were so diverse and various that they could not make up a Science or a Book; and, therefore, I have here them altogether confusedly as what I had over-passed, and, if God please, I will another time give you a more perfect Book. Now you must rest content with these.” [51] We see this notion so lately as in a book entitled “An English Expositour,” issued in 1680 by John Hayes, Printer to the University of Cambridge. [52] The northern peoples believed also in an enormous wolf, called Fernris, who was the offspring of Loki, the evil principle. This creature until the end of the world would be the cause of unnumbered ills to humanity, but at the crack of doom would, after a fearful struggle, be vanquished by the Gods, and a reign of universal peace would succeed his overthrow. [53] “Wherefore, studious Readers, accept my long Labours, that cost me much Study, Travel, Expense, and much Inconvenience, with the same Mind that I publish them; and remove all Blindness and Malice, which are wont to dazle the sight of the Minde, and hinder the Truth; weigh these Things with a right Judgement when you try what I have Written, for finding both Truth and Profit, you will (it may be) think better of my Pains.”—_End of the Preface to Porta’s “Natural Magick.”_ [54] In Dryden’s poem, “The Hind and Panther,” we find the reference:— “The bloody bear, an independent beast, Unlick’d to form, in groans her hate expressed.” [55] The scientific name of the hare is _Lepus timidus_. Dryden, in the “Hind and Panther,” places “amongst the timerous kind the quaking hare.” [56] Magliabechi, the learned librarian, pinned his faith upon treacle to make his memory retentive. Grataroli, a famous physician of the sixteenth century, wrote a Latin treatise, “The Castle of Memory,” wherein, amongst an enormous number of recipes, we find the internal application of bear’s grease, a hazelnutful of mole’s fat, and calcined human hair, strongly recommended by the learned author. [57] It was held by our ancestors that freckles came in the early part of the year when the birds were laying their eggs, and that the same mysterious influence of Nature that spotted the eggs of the chaffinch, wren, robin, thrush, and other birds, freckled the human skin.