nihil anfractibus involutem, nihil eminens, sed inter corpora perfecta
est perfectissimum; [1130]therefore all spirits are corporeal he
concludes, and in their proper shapes round. That they can assume other
aerial bodies, all manner of shapes at their pleasures, appear in what
likeness they will themselves, that they are most swift in motion, can
pass many miles in an instant, and so likewise [1131]transform bodies
of others into what shape they please, and with admirable celerity
remove them from place to place; (as the Angel did Habakkuk to Daniel,
and as Philip the deacon was carried away by the Spirit, when he had
baptised the eunuch; so did Pythagoras and Apollonius remove themselves
and others, with many such feats) that they can represent castles in
the air, palaces, armies, spectrums, prodigies, and such strange
objects to mortal men's eyes, [1132]cause smells, savours, &c., deceive
all the senses; most writers of this subject credibly believe; and that
they can foretell future events, and do many strange miracles. Juno's
image spake to Camillus, and Fortune's statue to the Roman matrons,
with many such. Zanchius, Bodine, Spondanus, and others, are of opinion
that they cause a true metamorphosis, as Nebuchadnezzar was really
translated into a beast, Lot's wife into a pillar of salt; Ulysses'
companions into hogs and dogs, by Circe's charms; turn themselves and
others, as they do witches into cats, dogs, hares, crows, &c. Strozzius
Cicogna hath many examples, lib. iii. omnif. mag. cap. 4 and 5, which
he there confutes, as Austin likewise doth, de civ. Dei lib. xviii.
That they can be seen when and in what shape, and to whom they will,
saith Psellus, Tametsi nil tale viderim, nec optem videre, though he
himself never saw them nor desired it; and use sometimes carnal
copulation (as elsewhere I shall [1133]prove more at large) with women
and men. Many will not believe they can be seen, and if any man shall
say, swear, and stiffly maintain, though he be discreet and wise,
judicious and learned, that he hath seen them, they account him a
timorous fool, a melancholy dizzard, a weak fellow, a dreamer, a sick
or a mad man, they contemn him, laugh him to scorn, and yet Marcus of
his credit told Psellus that he had often seen them. And Leo Suavius, a
Frenchman, c. 8, in Commentar. l. 1. Paracelsi de vita longa, out of
some Platonists, will have the air to be as full of them as snow
falling in the skies, and that they may be seen, and withal sets down
the means how men may see them; Si irreverberatus oculis sole
splendente versus caelum continuaverint obtutus, &c., [1134]and saith
moreover he tried it, praemissorum feci experimentum, and it was true,
that the Platonists said. Paracelsus confesseth that he saw them divers
times, and conferred with them, and so doth Alexander ab
[1135]Alexandro, that he so found it by experience, when as before he
doubted of it. Many deny it, saith Lavater, de spectris, part 1. c. 2,
and part 2. c.
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