Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/474

 are compelled. There is moreover as hath been above said, a certain kind of spirits not so noxious, but most neer to men, so that they are even affected with humane passions, and many of these delight in mans society, and willingly dwell with them: Some of them dote upon women, some upon children, some are delighted in the company of divers domestick and wild animals, some inhabit Woods and Parks, some dwell about fountains and meadows. So the Fairies, and hobgoblins inhabit Champian fields; the Naiades fountains: the Potamides Rivers; the Nymphs marshes, and ponds: the Oreades mountains; the Humedes Meadows; the Dryades and Hamadryades the Woods, which also Satyrs and Sylvani inhabit, the same also take delight in trees and brakes, as do the Naptæ, and Agaptæ in flowers; the Dodonæ in Acorns; the Paleæ and Feniliæ in fodder and the Country. He therefore that will call upon them, may easily doe it in the places where their abode is, by alluring them with sweet fumes, with pleasant sounds, and by such instruments as are made of the guts of certain animals and peculiar wood, adding songs, verses, inchantments sutable to it, and that which is especially to be observed in this, the singleness of the wit, innocency of the mind, a firm credulity, and constant silence; wherefore they do often meet children, women, and poor and mean men. They are afraid of and flie from men of a constant, bold, and undaunted mind, being no way offensive to good and pure men, but to wicked and impure, noxious. of this kind are hobgoblins, familiars, and ghosts of dead men. Hence Plotinus saith, that the souls of men are sometimes made spirits: and of men well deserving are made familiars which the Greeks call Eudemons, i.e. blessed spirits: but of ill deserving men, hags, and hobgoblins, which the Greeks call Cacodemons, i.e. Evil spirits; But they may be called ghosts when it is uncertain whether they have deserved well or ill. Of these apparitions there are divers examples; such was that which Pliny the Junior makes mention of concerning the house of Athenodorus the Philosopher of Tharsis in which there appeared