_Char_. The most beautiful of all the Sons and Daughters of the
Universe: Fancy, Imagination is not half so charming: And then so soft,
so kind! but none but the _Caballa_ and their Families are blest with
their divine Addresses. Were you but once admitted to that Society--
_Doct_. Ay, Sir, what Virtues or what Merits can accomplish me for that
great Honour?
_Char_. An absolute abstinence from carnal thought, devout and pure of
Spirit; free from Sin.
_Doct_. I dare not boast my Virtues, Sir; Is there no way to try my
Purity?
_Char_. Are you very secret?
_Doct_. ‘Tis my first Principle, Sir.
_Char_. And one, the most material in our _Rosycrusian_ order.--Please
you to make a Tryal?
_Doct_. As how, Sir, I beseech you?
_Char_. If you be thorowly purg’d from Vice, the Opticles of your Sight
will be so illuminated, that glancing through this Telescope, you may
behold one of these lovely Creatures, that people the vast Region of
the Air.
_Doct_. Sir, you oblige profoundly.
_Char_. Kneel then, and try your strength of Virtue. Sir,--Keep your Eye
fix’d and open. [_He looks in the Telescope_.
[_While he is looking_, Charmante _goes to the Door to_ Scaramouch,
_who waited on purpose without, and takes a Glass with a Picture of
a Nymph on it, and a Light behind it; that as he brings it, it shews
to the Audience. Goes to the end of the Telescope_.
--Can you discern, Sir?
_Doct_. Methinks, I see a kind of glorious Cloud drawn up--and now, ‘tis
gone again.
_Char_. Saw you no Fuger?
_Doct_. None.
_Char_. Then make a short Prayer to _Alikin_, the Spirit of the East;
shake off all earthly Thoughts, and look again.
[_He prays_. Charmante _puts the Glass into the Mouth
of the Telescope_.
_Doct_.--Astonish’d, ravish’d with Delight, I see a Beauty young and
Angel-like, leaning upon a Cloud.
_Char_. Seems she on a Bed? then she’s reposing, and you must not gaze.
_Doct_. Now a Cloud veils her from me.
_Char_. She saw you peeping then, and drew the Curtain of the Air
between.
_Doct_. I am all Rapture, Sir, at this rare Vision--is’t possible, Sir,
that I may ever hope the Conversation of so divine a Beauty?
_Char_. Most possible, Sir; they will court you, their whole delight is
to immortalize--_Alexander_ was begot by a Salamander, that visited his
Mother in the form of a Serpent, because he would not make King _Philip_
jealous; and that famous Philosopher _Merlin_ was begotten on a Vestal
Nun, a certain King’s Daughter, by a most beautiful young Salamander; as
indeed all the Heroes, and Men of mighty Minds are.
_Doct_. Most excellent!
_Char_. The Nymph _Egeria_, inamour’d on _Numa Pompilius_, came to him
invisible to all Eyes else, and gave him all his Wisdom and Philosophy.
_Zoroaster, Trismegistus, Apuleius, Aquinius, Albertus Magnus, Socrates_
and _Virgil_ had their Zilphid, which the Foolish call’d their Daemon or
Devil. But you are wise, Sir.
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