Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/125

 by reason of the disposition of the body, as the Peripateticks will have it, or which is more true, by reason of the good pleasure of him that bestows it, who gives it to every one as he pleaseth. From thence it passeth to the fancy, yet above the sense, but only imaginable, and thence to the sence, but especially to that of the eyes; In them it becomes a visible clearness, and is extended to other perspicuous bodies, in which it becomes a colour, and a shining beauty, but in dark bodies it is a certain beneficiall and generative vertue, and penetrates, to the very center, where the beames of it being collected into a narrow place, it becomes a dark heat, tormenting, and scorching, so that all things perceive the vigour of the light according to their capacity, all which joyning to it self with an enlivening heat, and passing through all things, doth convey its qualities, and vertues through all things. Therefore Magicians forbid the Urin of a sick man to be sprinkled in the shadow a sick man, or to be uncovered against the Sun or the Moon, because the rayes of the light penetrating, bringing suddenly with it the noxious qualities of the sick bodies, convey them into the opposite body, and affect that with a quality of the same kind. This is the reason why Enchanters have a care to cover their Enchantments with their shadow. So the Civet cat make all Dogs dumb with the very touch of her shadow. Also there are made artificially some Lights, by Lamps, Torches, Candles, and such like, of some certain thing, and liquors opportunely chosen, according to the rule of the Stars, and composed amongst themselves according to their congruity, which when they be lighted, and shine alone, are wont to produce some wonderfull, and Celestiall effects, which men many times wonder at, as Pliny reports out of Anaxilaus, of a poison of Mares after copulation, which being lighted in Torches, doth monstrously represent a sight of horse heads: the like may be done of Asses, and flies, which being tempered with wax, & lighted, make a strange sight of flies: and the skin of a Serpent lighted in a Lamp, maketh Serpents appear. And they say when Grapes are in their