resies, when we serve the true God with a false worship; idolatry, when we worship false gods, supposing them to be true; and witchcraft, when we adore false gods, knowing them to be wicked and false. For so your majesty doth excellently well observe, that witchcraft is the height of idolatry. And yet we see though these be true degrees, Samuel teacheth us that they are all of a nature, when there is once a receding from the word of God; for so he saith, Quasi peccatum ariolandi est repugnare, et quasi scelus idololatrie nolle acquiescere.

These things I have passed over so briefly, because I can report no deficience concerning them: for I can find no space or ground that lieth vacant and unsown in the matter of divinity; so diligent have men been, either in sowing of good seed, or in sowing of

tares.

THUS have I made, as it were, a small globe of the intellectual world, as truly and faithfully as I could discover, with a note and description of those parts which seem to me not constantly occupate, or not well converted by the labour of man. In which, if I have in any point receded from that which is com monly received, it hath been with a purpose of proceeding in melius, and not in aliud: a mind of amendment and proficience, and not of change and difference. For I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others, but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again; which may the better appear by this, that I have propounded my opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate the liberty of mens judgments by confutations. For in any thing which is well set down, I am in good hope, that if the first reading move an objection, the second reading will make an answer. And in those things wherein I have erred, I am sure, I have not prejudiced the right by litigious arguments, which certainly have this contrary effect and operation, that they add authority to error, and destroy the authority

of that which is well invented. For question is an honour and preferment to falshood, as on the other side it is a repulse to truth. But the errors I claim and challenge to myself as my own. The good, if any be, is due tanquam adeps sacrificii, to be incensed to the honour first of the Divine Majesty, and next of your majesty, to whom on earth I am most bounden.

MAGNALIA NATURE,

PRÆCIPUE QUOAD USUS HUMANOS.

THE prolongation of life: the restitution of youth in some degree: the retardation of age: the curing of diseases counted incurable: the mitigation of pain: more easy and less loathsome purgings: the increasing of strength and activity: the increasing of ability to suffer torture or pain: the altering of complexions, and fatness and leanness: the altering of statures: the altering of features: the increasing and exalting of the intellectual parts: versions of bodies into other bodies: making of new species: transplanting of one species into another: instruments of destruction, as of war and poison: exhilaration of the spirits, and putting them in good disposition: force of the imagination, either upon another body, or upon the body itself: acceleration of time in maturations: acceleration of time in clarifications: acceleration of putrefaction: acceleration of decoction: acceleration of germination; making rich composts for the earth: impressions of the air, and raising of tempests: great alteration; as in induration, emollition, etc. turning crude and watery substances into oily and unctuous substances: drawing of new foods out of substances not now in use: making new threads for apparel; and new stuffs, such as are paper, glass, etc. natural divinations: deceptions of the senses: greater pleasures of the senses: artificial minerals and cements.