From the second part of Goethe's Faust the reader may remember Doctor Wagner, Faust's former _famulus_, busily engaged at the alchemic furnace in preparing a _homunculus_, an artificial man. The same "_Magia Divina_" from which we have quoted the preceding directions, allows us also to trace the secret of the learned Wagner: the art of producing "homunculos philosophicos." In a retort of the most beautiful crystal glass is poured one measure of the purest May-dew, collected when the moon is crescent, and two measures of blood from a youth, or three measures from a girl. Both the boy and the girl must be hale and, "if possible," chaste. When this mixture has fomented during a month, and been transformed into a reddish clay, the _menstruum_ which is formed on the top is drawn off by means of tubes hermetically attached to the retort, gathered into a clean glass vessel, mixed with one drachm animal tincture, and the mixture is again poured into the retort where it is kept during a month in gentle heat. A sort of bladder will have then formed which is soon gradually covered with an organic net of little veins and nerves. Sprinkled every fourth week with the _menstruum_ above quoted, the bladder grows during four months. When now you notice a peeping sound and movements of vitality in the glass, look into it and you will discover to your joy and amazement a most beautiful pair, a boy and a girl, which you can contemplate with heart-felt admiration for this lovely work of nature, though their height is but six inches. They move and walk about in the glass, where in the midst there is a tree growing with all kinds of pleasant fruits. If now you pour into the retort every month, two grains of animal tincture, you can keep them alive six whole years. When one year old they can inform you of many secrets of nature. They are benevolent in their disposition, and obey you in every thing. But at the end of the sixth year you will find that this beautiful pair who have eaten hitherto of all kinds of fruit, except those growing on the tree which sprang up in the midst of the retort, now begin to eat also the fruit of that. Then a vapor is found in the retort, which grows denser, assumes a blood-red color and emits flashes. The two _homunculi_ are terrified, and try to hide themselves. Finally every thing around them is parched, they die, and the whole is changed into a fuming mass. If the glass is not very large and strong it explodes, causing great damage. [33] Every planet had among the twelve signs of the Zodiac its own house, and it was especially propitious when in any of those abodes. The following table shows the order:-- Saturn dwells in Capricornus. Jupiter " " Pisces and Sagittarius. Mars " " Aries and Scorpio. The Sun " " Leo. Venus " " Taurus and Ursa Major. Mercurius " " Virgo and Gemini. The Moon " " Cancer.