Page:Halliwell Collection of Letters.djvu/28

 And maye therfore in my judgement more woorthely be cauled Michrocosmos, then eyther man or any other creature that ever was made of corporall substance. Angelus Politianus in his epistells describeth an instrument cauled automaton made in his tyme in the citie of Florence, observing the exacte moving of Primum Mobile and Octava Sphæera, with also the movinges of the 7 planetes in there spheres, in all poyntes agreable to there moving in the heaven. Of the like instrument also our Roger Bacon wrotte longe before in his booke de Mirabili potestate artis et naturæ, where he writeth in this maner, Majus omnium figurationum et rerum figuratarum est, ut cœlestia describerentur secundum suas longitudines et latitudines in figura corporali, qua moventur corporaliter motu diurno, et hæc valere[n]t regnum [unum] homini sapienti, &c. The which instrument doubtlesse, allthowgh it be of a divine invention, yet dothe this Michrocosmos so far surmount it, as nature passeth arte, and as motus animalis passeth motus violentus, for as the other is moved only by waight or wynde inclosed (as is seene in clockes and organs) so is this moved by the same spirite of life, wherby not only the heaven, but also all nature, is moved: whose mover is God hymselfe, as saithe St. Paule, Ipsus est in quo vivimus, movemur, et sumus; as also Aristotle, Plato, and Philo, in there bookes De Mundo, do affirme; and especially Marcus Manilius in Astronomicis ad Augustum Cæsarem, writing thus:

Item Lucanus:

And wheras the autoure that describeth the Michrocosmos affirmeth that the Chaos therof is materia Lapidis Philosophorum (which is also Chaos, vel omnium, vel prima materia mundi majoris) it seemeth to agre with that Cornelius Agrippa hathe written in his seconde booke De occulta philosophia, in scala unitatis, where he wryteth thus: Lapis philosophorum est unum subjectum et instrumentum omnium virtutum naturalium et transnaturalium, &c. And that this greate and divine secreate of this Michrocosmos maye not seeme incredible unto