Page:The place of magic in the intellectual history of Europe.djvu/27

19]. Human free will may either better these innate tendencies through God's grace or modify them for the worse by yielding to Satan's temptings; but in general the stars so far prevail that there are different laws and customs and national traits under different quarters of the heavens. Nay more, astrology offers proof of the superiority of Christianity to other religions and gives insight into the nature of Antichrist.

As one might surmise from Bacon's belief in the potent effect of sidereal emanations, he makes much of the theory that every agent sends forth its own virtue and species into external matter. This leads him to accept fascination as a fact. Just as Aristotle tells that in some localities mares become pregnant by the mere odor of the stallions, and as Pliny relates that the basilisk kills by a glance, so the witch by the vapor from her bleary eye draws her victims on to destruction. In short, "Man can project virtue and species outside himself, the more since he is nobler than all corporeal things, and especially because of the virtue of the rational soul." Hence the great effects possible from spoken words or written characters; although one must beware of falling into the absurdities and abominations of the magicians. Bacon, moreover, was like Scot a believer in the doctrine of signatures.

Other men of the same period prominent in science who held similar beliefs we can scarcely stop to mention. There was Vincent de Beauvais, the great encyclopedist, and