Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/32

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Book I.
Of Occult Philoſophy.
5

theſe three principall faculties Naturall Magick comprehends, unites, and actuates; deſervedly therefore was it by the Ancients eſteemed as the higheſt, and moſt ſacred Philoſophy. It was, as we find, brought to light by moſt ſage Authours, and moſt famous Writers; amongſt which principally Zamolxis and Zoroaſter were ſo famous, that many believed they were the inventers of this Science. Their track Abbaris the Hyperborean, Charmondas, Damigeron, Eudoxus, Hermippus followed: there were alſo other eminent, choice men, as Mercurius Treſmegiſtus, Porphyrius, Iamblicus, Plotinus, Proclus, Dardanus, Orpheus the Thracian, Gog the Grecian, Germa the Babilonian, Apollonius of Tyana, Oſthanes alſo wrote excellently in this Art; whoſe Books being as it were loſt, Democritus of Abdera recovered, and ſet forth with his own Commentaries. Beſides Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Plato, and many other renowned Philoſophers travelled far by Sea to learn this Art: and being returned, publiſhed it with wonderfull devoutneſs, eſteeming of it as a great ſecret. Alſo it is well known that Pythagoras, and Plato went to the Prophets of Memphis to learn it, and travelled through almost all Syria, Egypt, Judea, and the Schools of the Caldeans, that they might not be ignorant of the moſt ſacred Memorials, and Records of Magick, as alſo that they might be furniſhed with Divine things. Whoſoever therefore is deſirous to ſtudy in this Faculty, if he be not skilled in naturall Philoſophy, wherein are diſcovered the qualities of things, and in which are found the occult properties of every Being, and if he be not skilfull in the Mathematicks, and in the Aſpects, and Figures of the Stars, upon which depends the ſublime vertue, and property of every thing; and if he be not learned in Theologie, wherein are manifeſted thoſe immateriall ſubſtances, which diſpence, and miniſter all things, he cannot be poſſibly able to underſtand the rationality of Magick. For there is no work that is done by meer Magick, nor any work that is meerly Magicall, that doth not comprehend theſe three Faculties.

CHAP.

B 3