Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/145

 of dead Carkases. By the same instinct Partridges know their Dam, whichm they never saw and leave the Partridge which stole away her Dams Eggs, & sate upon them. By the same instinct also certain hurtful and terrible things are perceived (the soul of the men being altogether ignorant of them) whence terror, and horror ceaseth much upon men when they think nothing of these things. So a thief lying hid in any house, although no body knows, or thinks of his being there, strikes fear, and terror, and a troublesomeness of mind into the inhabitants of that house, although haply not of all, because the brightness of this instinct is not in all men; yet of some of them. So a harlot being hid in some very large house, is sometimes perceived to be there by some one that is altogether ignorant of her being there. It is mentioned in Histories that Heraiscus a certain Egyptian, a man of a divine nature, could discern unclean women, not only by his eyes, but by their voice, being heard afar off, and thereupon did fall into a most grievous headach. William of Paris also makes mention of a certain woman in his time, that by the same instinct perceived a man whom she loved, coming two miles off. Also he relates that in his time was a certain Stork convicted of unchastity by the smell of the male, who being judged guilty by a multitude of Storks whom the male gathered together, discovering to them the fault of his mate, was, her feathers being pulled off, torn in pieces by them. He also makes mention of a certain horse, who not knowing his dam, and leaping of her, when afterwards he understood what he had done, bit off his own Stones by way of revenge upon himself for his incest. The same doth Varro, Aristotle, and Pliny relate concerning horses. And Pliny makes mention of a certain Serpent, called the Asp, that did such a like thing, for she coming to a certain mans table in Egypt, was there daily fed, and she having brought forth some young, by one of which a son of her hosts was killed, after she knew of it, killed that young one, and would never return to that house any more. Now by these examples you see, how the lights of presage may descend upon some Animals, as signs, or marks of things, &