by-standers think it is the Serpent it self, and presently whips it up and conveys it into his pocket. And such a trick as this well acted might make _Pharaoh_ and the beholders believe there was as much done, as _Moses_ and _Aaron_ did, but only that _Aarons_ rod swallowed up their Serpents, or his Serpent theirs, which they might easily excuse. As for the changing water into blood, and the producing of Frogs, they were so easy to be done after the same manner, that they need not any particular explication, for by this the manner of their performance may most easily be understood. Though I once saw a Gentleman that was much delighted with these kind of tricks, and did himself play them admirable well, who performed it with a living Snake, that he had got for one of his Children to keep in a box; for in this North Countrey they are plentiful, and are also innoxious; and it might have deceived a very wary person. So that it is very foolish and absurd to bring in a Demon from Hell, or an Angel from Heaven, or a Soul from above, to solve a thing that seems strange and uncouth by, when the craft and cunning of Men (if duely considered and examined) are sufficient to perform the same, and much more. [Sidenote: _Argum. 5._] 5. And in this place of Exodus where our Translators say: _and the Magicians did so_ or in like manner _with their inchantments_, the word being _Belahatehem_ ought to have been rendered, _suis laminis_ (as we have proved before) that is, with their bright plates of metal, for the word doth not signifie Inchantments in any one place in all the Old Testament. And if truth and reason may bear any sway at all, it must be understood that they were deeply skilled in natural and lawful Magick (as generally the _Ægyptians_ and the Eastern Nations were) though they did use and apply it to an evil end, namely the resisting the power of Gods miracles wrought by _Moses_ and _Aaron_: and so by this word _suis laminis_, with their plates of Metal must be understood, Metalline bright plates framed under certain fit constellations, and insculped with certain figures, by which naturally (without any Diabolical assistance) they did perform strange things, and made the shapes of some things appear to the eye. And though we may be derided and laughed to scorn by the ignorant, or hardly taxed and censured by the greatest part of Cynical Criticks, yet we cannot so far stifle the knowledge of our own brains, nor be so cowardly in maintaining the truth, but we must assert, That anciently there hath been a certain lawful art, whereby some sorts of metals might be mixed together under a due constellation, and after ingraven in like fit Planetary times with sundry figures, that would naturally work strange things; And this piece of learning though it may justly be numbred amongst the _Desiderata_, and might very well have been placed in the Catalogue of the _Deperdita_ of _Pancirollus_;