Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/70

 will be tamed by nothing so much as by these: and the Wolf fears neither sword, nor spear, but a stone, by the throwing of which a wound being made, worms breed in the Wolf. A Horse fears a Camell, so that he cannot endure to see so much as his picture. An Elephant when he rageth, is quieted by seeing of a Cock. A Snake is afraid of a man that is naked, but pursues a man that is clothed. A mad Bull is tamed by being tyed to a Fig-tree. Amber draws all things to it besides Garden Basill, and those things, which are smeared with oile, betwixt which there is a kinde of a naturall Antipathy.

Moreover thou must consider that the Vertues of things are in some things according to the species, as boldness, and courage in a Lyon, & Cock: fearfulness in a Hare, or Lamb, ravenousness in a Wolf, treachery, and deceitfulness in a Fox, flattery in a Dog, covetousness in a Crow, and Daw, pride in a Horse, anger in a Tygre, and Boar, sadness, and melancholy in a Cat, lust in a sparrow, and so of the rest. For the greatest part of naturall Vertues doth follow the species. Yet some are in things individually; as there be some men which do so wonderfully abhor the sight of a Cat, that they cannot look upon her without quaking; which fear it is manifest is not in them as they are men. And Avicen tels of a man that lived in his time, whom all poisonous things did shun, all of them dying, which did by chance bite him, he himself not being hurt, and Albertus reports that in a City of the Ubians he saw a wench who would catch Spiders to eat them, and being much pleased with such a kind of meat, was wonderfully nourished therewith. So is boldness in a Harlot, fearfulness in a Thief. And upon this account it is that Philosophers say, that any particular thing that