# Memoirs of the Twentieth Century/Preface the Second

PREFACE
the Second.
IT is not without a mixture of shame and sorrow, my dear Reader, that I am forced to take thee from the delightful Entertainment which thou hast been tasting in these admirable Letters, and the amazing Scenes of Futurity discover'd in them; to return to so insipid an employment, as my answering all objections against this Work. But there is no help for it; and since the World (as some ill Paymasters serve their Workmen) loves rather to rail at the performance and skill, of the wise Authors who labour for its service, than to pay them their wages; I must do my best to answer all its Accusations and Cavils.
​I shall not expostulate here against the ingratitude of such treatment. I shall take a nobler revenge, than upbraiding or reproaching them for it: and that is, by shewing the Folly, Stupidity, and Ignorance of all they are able to urge against me! Against me, did I say? against that exalted Spirit, that seraphick immortal Being from whom I receiv'd it!
The first Objection then, and which I find most insisted on, is, That there are no such Beings assign'd to attend Mankind, as good or bad Angels or Genii; and that therefore all I have said on that subject, must be meer Invention, that I may not use so vile a word as Falshood.
These Objectors are very violent, but altogether as blind and ignorant; and I may say of them as Momus did of the Bull, that he was a stout pusher, but he wanted an Eye in his horn, it being his way to shut his Eyes when he pushes, as one would think these poor people do.
For it has been the common opinion of all Nations, of all Religions, of all Ages, that every Man had a good Angel attending him. 'Tis true indeed, we must except a little Sect among the Jews, from this gene​ral account: but till we are in danger of becoming a Nation of Sadduces, I hope we shall have little regard for their Error. All the Pharisees in the ancient Jewish Church, who were follow'd by infinitely the largest, and wisest part of that people, did not only maintain the existence of Angels, but many of them believed every Man had two assign'd him, the one good to protect him, the other bad to record his faults, and be his accuser. Nay, some of their Doctors made these Angels to resemble exactly those whom they thus attended; and asserted, that as it was Esau's Angel, who wrestled with Jacob, it was for fear of being known, that he would fain have persuaded Jacob from keeping him till the morning, which however he could not succeed in, and so was discovered by the Patriarch.
Some of them carried this point so far, that I can produce proofs from their best Authors, (however some Rabbies may deny it) that they used to pray on all occasions, to their guardian Angels to protect them; and applied to them to this end, even in the very act of relieving Nature: a time when ​in every one's opinion, but Thomas d' Aquinas's, the body is too much taken up, to leave room for pious Meditations, or Ejaculations of any kind, unless in cases of painful costiveness, or violent fluxes.
The very Turks and Persians, and all the Heathens that overspread the Eastern parts of the Earth, acknowledge this great Truth; and tho' they shut their eyes against some of more importance, yet are asham'd to deny one so glaring and manifest as this; and surely my Adversaries will not have us shew ourselves greater Infidels than these, let things go ever so ill with some conceited Men among us as to believing. Nay, the Mahometans do not only allow two Angels to Men, to attend on them during their Lives, but even after their Deaths, they assign to each wicked person two black Angels, whom they call Mongir and Guavequir, to sit by him in his Grave, and torment him there till the Day of Judgment; or if good, two white Angels, one of which lays its arm under his head, and the other sits at his feet, and so protect him most quietly, till Domesday discharges these trusty Watchmen. It is true, we should not build too much on the Turks opinion herein, ​the good Mahomet having been so very liberal of his Dæmons, as to assign an evil Angel, (a matter of Faith to all his Followers) to every single Grape. But tho' he may have overstrain'd that point a little, yet still he has but followed the general opinion of Mankind: for many Nations in different parts of the Earth, do not only allow Angels to Men, but even to the four Seasons of the Year, the four Gates of Heaven, the four Quarters of the World, the four Rivers of Paradise, the four Winds, the seven Planets, the twelve Months of the Year, the four Elements, the twelve Signs of the Zodiack, and the twenty-eight Mansions of the Moon. To the very Days of the Week, and every particular Hour of the Day and Night, they assigned a presiding Angel, as these ignorant Objectors might read (if they could read such things) in all occult Astrologers, and great Philosophers; and particularly in the Elementa Magica of Petrus de Abano, where their names are specified, and joined regularly to their several Offices.
Certainly therefore, as almost all the known Nations of the Earth, not excepting ​the Atheists of China and Siam, have maintained this opinion, I might, had I wanted stronger proofs, fairly insist that it must be true; and lay it down as no ill axiom for these sceptical doubters, Quod præscriptione valet, ratione valet. But I shall argue more fairly with them, and shall undertake to shew them, first, that the learned Heathens, and some great Rabbies; and secondly, that many of the Fathers, and all the Roman, and truly Catholick Infallible Church, have ever maintained this doctrine; and shall give some known instances from learned Writers in both.
Among the first, both Homer in several places of his Iliad and Odyssea, and Hesiod, in his Moral Poem, appear plainly of this opinion; and the latter has even assigned the number of good Angels, appointed to attend Mankind. In the little that we have of the Works of Menander, there is a full proof that he gave into the same sentiments; for in one of his fragments he asserts, that every one from his birth has a particular Dæmon assigned to take care of him. Pythagoras, who dogmatized in the sixtieth Olympiad, and whose school lasted to the ​nineteenth generation; and Plato, who flourished above thirty Olympiads after him, (as Diogenes Laertius tells us) and all their Disciples taught this; and especially among the Platonists, Maximus Tyrius, Plotinus, and Jamblicus. This was also the universal doctrine of the Stoicks, as one might easily shew by numberless proofs; but it will be sufficient to point out Seneca's hundred and tenth epistle to Lucilius, where this is abundantly made evident: and not only that they maintained that every man had his Genius, but every woman her Juno attending on her. All the greatest Jewish Rabbies of the three last Centuries, treading in the steps of the learned Porphyry, and more ancient Jewish Writers, held this doctrine; and have sown it so thick in their works, that a man knows not where to begin to quote them, or where to end when he has begun. They all agreed as one Man on this head, and to this day it is generally maintained by the few among them that have any learning. To go no farther than the Patriarchs, they believe that Adam was often conversant with, and governed by his An​gel Raziel; Sem by Jophiel; Abraham by Tzadkiel; Isaac by Raphael; Esau by Schamael; Jacob by Piel; Moses by Mitraton; and King David by Michael; as any one may see, that will but look into their Writings relating to these matters.
Nor are the instances in ancient Writers of Men who had such Genii, and conversed with them sometimes, infrequent. Hermes, Socrates, Numa, Cyrus, Scipio, Marius, Scylla, Sertorius, Julius, and Augustus Cæsar, Julian the Apostate, and Apollonius Tyanæus, are often mentioned on this occasion; as well as Aristotle, Dion, Fl. Josephus, Plotinus, Galen, Synesius, Porphyry, Jamblicus, and even Brutus, Cassius, and Cicero; though these three last indeed, had no communication with them, till a little before their deaths. It were endless to quote all the testimonies of Authors, that these great Men were allowed to have their Genii, who either appeared to them, or only assisted and watched over them privately: whoever reads their Lives or Works will easily acknowledge it, and save me much needless labour. But the evidence for Socrates having such an one, is so universal both among the Philosophers and the ​Fathers, that I can't but mention its particularly. Some of the latter have carried it so far as to say, that from thence he had an actual prescience of our Saviour's coming into the World, and though darkly (as Socrates words are very dark on it) yet he foresaw both the necessity and advantages of his appearing among Men.
As to the Philosophers, both Plato, and even Zenophon, who was no friend to Plato (and would willingly have contradicted and opposed him, had he writ a falshood) agree in this fact, and are worth a thousand other Witnesses (for Maximus Tyrius, Apuleius, Antisthenes, Diogenes Laertius, Cicero, and Plutarch, all agree in it) because both of them knew him intimately, and were Men of the highest veracity and honour. Nay, this was so uncontested a fact, that Origen shewing the virulence and rage of calumny, in Men of bad hearts and malevolent spirits, whom no innocence can escape, nor virtue silence; adds, that such People will even make a mock of the Genius of Socrates, as a vain thing.
​Now as this is so evident, as to Socrates; so a few quotations of the like nature, would make it as probable, that the testimonies producible for all the rest are as well grounded; and especially, when such undeniable Facts and Authors are brought for their vouchers: all which, however, to avoid confusion and a troublesome prolixity, we shall omit, and pass to the opinion of the holy Roman Church, and more modern instances of this sort among men.
It has been said already, and 'tis universally known and allowed, that several of the ancient Fathers were of this opinion, and (abstracted from proofs from holy Writ, which, I will own to my adversaries, is perfectly silent here), it was indeed a natural consequence from their being generally Platonists. There will be no need therefore, of appealing to quotations from their works, on this head; and for the same reason I shall pass by the Schoolmen, many of whom are so clear on this point; and content myself to shew, that some modern Divines and Philosophers have not deserted the Fathers here, but rather have gone as much beyond them, as truth and prudence could possibly allow them.
​Let us begin then (without mentioning Kircher's good Genius, who carried him through the Planets in his Iter Extaticum) with that grave and wonderful writer, the excellent Franciscus Albertinus. I shall introduce this Author first, both as he is a Jesuit, and on that account alone deserves to precede all others; and because in his admirable Treatise de Angelo Custode, he has, on evident reasons, though too tedious to insert, peremptorily determined, that every Church, Temple, Monastery, and Family, as well as every Man, is allowed a Guardian Angel, not excepting even Antichrist himself, which, says he, is to keep him from doing greater mischief. Nay, he does not only assure us, on his own unexceptionable credit, that the number of Archangels is greater than that of Angels, and that the crowd of these last, exceeds that of all Mankind: but to put it out of any possibility of being ever contested again, he has irrefragably proved it by a divine Revelation made to St. Bridget, whose words he quotes, viz. That if all Men that have been born since Adam, to the last Man that ​shall be born in the very end of the World, should be computed, there would be found more than ten Angels for every single Man.
I will not urge here that all this wise and venerable Order, are so far from doubting of this great Truth, that they and their whole Church pray to them daily; (Paul the fifth having published Officium Angeli Custodis, with the Prayers to them) because my ill-natured Opposers may say, they pray to a number of Saints who never had, and who they know, as well as Mons. Launoie, never had a being. But I hope I may fairly insist on it, as a good proof, that the Jesuit Schottus must have believed their Existence, otherwise he had never dedicated his Book of Mathematicks to his Tutelar Angel, so solemnly as he did: for however a wise and learned Jesuit may pray, he would never dedicate his Writings (I speak as an Author) but to a real Being, from whose influence he might receive benefit and advantage.
But let us pass from these great Men, and their sacred Order, whose probity, humility, and piety, I ever honoured, to the learned Cornelius Agrippa; who in his third book De occulta Philosophia, and the ​twentieth chapter, declares, that no Prince or Nobleman could be safe, or Woman chaste, or Man in this Vale of ignorance (for he speaks) able to serve God, but for the assistance of their good Angel. That great Divine Bartholomæus de Sybilla, goes yet farther, and avers, a good Angel is assigned to every one of us, from the moment we peep into the World; because, as he wisely and judiciously observes, the minute we are in danger of sinning, the care of the good Angel is necessary to defend us from the assaults of Satan; and that till we are born, we are sufficiently watched over by our mother's good Angel.
In another treatise, he is so modest as to except our Saviour from this general rule, and determines that he had no guardian Angels and though he proposes it as debateable, he gravely and learnedly maintains it, against all opposers, and overturns a seeming objection, of the Angel that арpeared to him in the Garden, and shews that it was but a ministring Spirit, and not a guardian Angel: which last thought, as odd as it looks, was the opinion of no less ​a man than St. Jerome. As the Devil when exorcised will sometimes witness to the Truth, so even one of the greatest Hereticks that ever appeared in the pulpit in Great-Britain, is forc'd to maintain the doctrine of good Angels very strenuously, in his sermon on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel; though he does not carry it so far, as that eminent writer Joannes Eckius does, in his seventh homily on the same festival. Indeed many grave Doctors of the holy and infallible Church of Rome, have ventured to assign to Men in high and publick Stations, not only an Angel, but an Archangel; and to the Pope, besides his Angel in ordinary, which he had a full title to from his birth, a couple of prime Archangels, to assist and direct him, having all of them enough to do, to keep him and his important affairs in tolerable order. And really to say the truth, I cannot but think these tutelar Angels of his Holiness, must be wearied out of their very lives, by such a vast variety of business, and a multiplicity of Intrigues, Designs, and Interests, as they must have daily on their hands, ​for the good of mens Souls, and the service of the Church. Possibly indeed the two Angels, whom Lactantius, with some ancient Fathers, asserts, God appointed to watch over Satan, might save them some trouble, and make their Province less burthensome to them. But the good Eckius is so bounteous of these spiritual Guardians, that he declares in that Homily, a Man of consequence may sometimes be allowed thirty or more Angels; and that he cannot think his Imperial Majesty (for whom he has a mighty regard) ought reasonably to be allowed less, his great cares and employments considered, than a single Angel for every Kingdom, Dukedom, or Province, over which he presides.
One would think the Germans were either flattered extremely by the Divines in this point, or supposed to have more enemies below, or friends above, than all other Nations, since they are more than the rest indulged in this affair by them. Nay the learned Carlo Fabri has been also so careful of their interests, as to give us in the list of the Angels assigned to the several ​Princes of the World, those who watcht over the seven Electors of the Empire, when he writ. He assures us, that the Angel Michael waited on the Archbishop of Mayence; Gabriel on the Archbishop of Treves; Raphael on the Archbishop of Cologne; the Angel Uriel on the Count Palatine of the Rhine; Secaltiel on the Duke of Saxony; Jehudiel on the Elector of Brandenburgh; and the Angel Farechiel on the King of Bohemia.
It is certainly an huge pity this same Carlo Fabri's knowledge did not look forwards into future Ages, since by this means he gives us no account of the two Electorates of Hannover and Bavaria; so that unless Providence has issued new orders about them, they must be unluckily left destitute, of the care and superintendance of any good Angels; and must therefore necessarily cost his Britannick Majesty, and his said Electoral Highness, abundance of more Pains, Money, Troops, and Counsellors, to manage them, than any of the other seven can want, that have such preternatural assistances to aid them.
But as this is fully sufficient to shew, that the holy and infallible Roman Church de​clares entirely for the opinion we have been defending, I shall not weary the Reader by quoting more Authors; and shall only name a few eminent Persons among the Moderns, who have been allowed to have had an intercourse with their Genii, as well as the Ancients.
And here I can't but begin with that famous Physician and Astrologer Peter D'Apono, because he had no less than seven entirely in his service, which also taught him the seven liberal Arts, as Ludovicus Wigius tells us. We shall place Cardan, and Scaliger, those two great rivals, next to him, though they are both so modest as to own they had but one a-piece; which is the more humble in Cardan, because even his father Facius, as the son assures, us, had one, which he conversed with about thirty years. Boissard, in his book De Divinatione, tells us at large, that the renowned Trithemius, Abbot of St. James's Monastery, had several Revelations and important Discoveries made to him by his good Angel; and ​Froissard, the Historian assures us, Count Raimond of Gascony, had a constant communication with his Genius, who informed him of all occurrences, and frequently gave him his advice, as to his conduct concerning them.
To these Gentlemen, besides Paracelsus, who 'tis disputable whether he had a Dæmon attending him, or was one himself, every one will agree to join the illustrious Tasso; who as his intimate friend Baptista Manso, the Author of his Life assures us, (being a witness of one of his conversations with it) frequently had a communication with his good Genius. Bodin (to say nothing of his anonymous friend, of whom he gives the same account) is another instance among the Moderns of this sort; though Guy Patin seems to insinuate, his conversation with his Guardian Angel went little farther than such hints as were lent him, by the chairs and stools in his room being moved by an imperceptible hand, whenever any thing was proposed to him that he ought not to agree to.
​But to omit many other Foreigners, who have been famous on this account, we might find several instances of the same nature among our own People, if the modesty of some Families, who would be offended to be named on this occasion, did not confine us to those which are already publick, Among these, the Manuscripts of the reverend Dr. Richard Nepier (with which Mr. Ashmole has wisely enriched the Museum at Oxford) are plain evidences of his frequent conversation with his Angel Raphael, whose answers he has there regularly set down, not only as to several polemical points in Divinity, but (as he was a Physician as well as a Divine) as to his Patients and Prescriptions, their Diseases, and Cures.
This was an intercourse extraordinary enough, and yet it falls very short of that which another of our Countrymen, Dr. Dee, (the great Mathematician and Astrologer) is known to have had with his aërial Spirit: as Dr. Meric Casaubon, has with equal labour and zeal shewn, in his dissertation and preface before his large folio, entitled, A true relation of Dr. Dee his actions with ​Spirits; to which I would gladly refer the Reader.
With these evident instances therefore, I shall shut up this matter; and though I could name some great Men at Court, who it is impossible could have our hearts and affections so entirely devoted to them, if they had not more good Angels at their command than any I have yet named: yet being loth to insist too far on this point, and having sufficiently made good already, what I undertook to prove against my adversaries, I shall venture to leave it to the Reader's serious consideration; who I doubt not is fully convinced of the absurdity of this objection, that there are no such Beings as good Angels assigned to Men.
But were this less clearly proved, let me ask thee, dear Reader, what motives, what considerations, what reasons, could move me to say, I received this work from my good Genius? Would it not be much more to my honour, to foretell all these things (which will certainly in due time be verified) by the force of my own Learning, and Wisdom, and a happy Foresight into future events? Would it not be more glorious to my memory, that all Posterity should speak ​of me in future Centuries, (when they see, with astonishment, the verification of all I have here presented to them) as Nepos does of Cicero, Sic enim omnia de studiis Principum, vitiis Ducum, ac mutationibus Reipublicæ perscripta sunt, ut nihil in his non appareat; & facile existimari possit, prudentiam quodammodo esse divinationem: Non enim Cicero ea solum, quæ vivo se acciderunt, futura prædixit; sed etiam quæ nunc usu veniunt, cecinit ut vates? Would it not endear me infinitely more to After-ages, that I was the original Inventor and Author of this new and unexampled way of writing the History of future Times, than that I was the bare Transcriber, or Translator of this prodigious work? Yes surely, and consequently nothing occasions this honest plain-dealing, and this ingenuous, this modest confession, but the infinite weight which humility and gratitude ought to have with all Men.
I am sensible the World has indeed been too frequently imposed on in these Matters. Lycurgus pretended his Laws were dictated to him by Apollo; Draco, and Solon, by Minerva; Charondas, by Saturn; and Mi​nos, that his came from Jupiter, with whom he convers'd familiarly, nine years together, which was a pretty long Dialogue, for a Mortal to hold with a God. Zaleucus ascrib'd his Laws to Minerva's Revelations; and Numa pretended to owe his to his close and intimate Conversations with the Goddess Ægeria, which he had with her in the Night-time; a very suspicious hour for her communicating such Favours in! But these were the little Arts and Contrivances of Governours of the People, set on fire with a poor ambition, of enlarging their power; whereas all I propose to publish, are a few naked Facts, which if they bring me any honour, when confirm'd by the event, I disclaim, as not belonging to me; and the disgrace of which, if falsified by time, I must entirely bear with Posterity, without any advantage at the present, but what I can reap from the envy and malice of an ungrateful Age.
Besides, what is it I set up for? I pretend not to entertain such hopes, from any correspondence with my good Genius, as Kepler did on Tycho Brahe's death, that nothing new should happen in the Heavens, unknown to him! No! all I pretend to, is ​to be the bare Publisher of just so much and no more, as he has been or shall be pleas'd to communicate to me; and if I do this candidly and sincerely, without obtruding any vain Fancies of my own on the world, I hope the least I can expect in return, is to be absolutely trusted and believed, in what I put into their hands. And indeed it would have requir'd such an unusual Fund of Imagination, to have struck out so many vast Inventions in all Arts and Sciences, and such infinite Scenes of Events, as are contain'd in the six Volumes I propose to present the world with; that I am sure this will serve as the fullest proof, (and a very modest and humble one) that I must have receiv'd them from the hand of a superior Being, since my talent that way, is so very confin'd. But this will be still further enforc'd, when my dear Reader perceives, that he finds so little in this Work, which ever was contain'd in Books and Authors, as being a subject entirely untouch'd and unthought of by mortal Man; and consequently he'll plainly discern things in every part of it, too transcendent for the little narrow roads and beaten paths of such low groveling Creatures as I am; and only fit to be the produce of ​that enlightned Mind, whence I fortunately receiv'd it.
But I hasten to another malicious Objection urg'd against this Work, which is, that allowing my Communication with my good Genius, it is impossible that he, or any such Being, could be able to foretell Events, which are so contingent and uncertain. But this Objection is very ill grounded; for first, it is against Matter of Fact, both in our own days and in ancient times: secondly, against the opinion of the holy and infallible Church of Rome: and thirdly, against Reason.
It is against Fact, even in our days; for, not to mention several uncontested proofs of the like nature in Lapland, the East and West-Indies, and many foreign Countries, we see at home here how common it is in Wales, to have the Death of particular persons evidently foretold, as well as the place of their departure and burial, by the means of those surprizing Apparitions, call'd Dead Men's Candles; which are as frequently seen walking their rounds in that Country, as our Watchmen are with their Lanthorns every night in London. Nay, we find in the Western Isles of Scotland, by the assistance of such aërial Spirits, not only Men ​and Women, but even Children foretell things to come, with the greatest certainty, nothing being so universally known and practised there, as the learned Mr. Martyn has shewn the World in his History of those Islands; the veracity of which, no man has, will, shall, may, or can presume to question.
But secondly, it is against Fact in ancient times; in as much as we have the testimony of both the Historians and Philosophers, that the Oracles of the Ancients, in numberless places, for many Ages, did on all occasions, when regularly consulted, give such undisputed proofs of their sufficiency herein; that both Greeks and Romans, who were most capable of, and interested in discovering the cheat, if it had been one, entirely acquiesced in all they deliver'd; and found it still confirm'd by the Success. Nor was this perform'd only by the Heathen Priests and Priestesses, assisted by their Dæmons, at Delos, Delphi, Thebes, Libadia, Milesia, and a thousand other places; but if we believe Callimachus and Pindar, the famous brazen Bulls in Rhodes, on the Mountain Æthobinius, (probably directed and inspir'd by particular Dæmons and Spirits, like their ​Oracles) used to give the Rhodians sufficient warning of all impending Evils, or remarkable Accidents.
It were easy to enlarge here, on many instances of the like nature, if there were occasion for them, and to bring in the prophetick Cow at Memphis, the Crocodiles at Arsinoe, and the Doves and Oaks at Dodona, mention'd by Herodotus; as well as the Ox Apis in Ægypt, whose oracular Faculties Pliny, and all the Ancients speak so much of. The Teraphims of the old Chaldæans, which used to foretell future Events to them, by the means of the informing Dæmon, is an evident proof herein, as well as their Telestick Science, which by certain Rites and Ceremonies, procured them the Conversation of their good Genii or Dæmons, at Mr. Stanley informs us. Even amongst the Jews, we see by all our accounts of them, this was a method of Divination or Prophecy, too frequently practis'd. The learned Rabbi Kimchi declares he believes Laban's Gods were of the same nature, and a kind of Teraphims, that by the means of their Dæmons, were endued with a prophetick Spirit.
​St. Austin is of the same opinion, as well as our Learned Selden in his Tract de Diis Syriis; and Philo Judæus has the same sentiments, speaking of the Teraphim of Michal the Daughter of Saul. Nay, this last-cited Author does not content himself with advancing this as his opinion, but has confirm'd it in another place, by that remarkable History he has given us, of Manachemus the Essæan Jew, who he assures us foretold, by the assistance of his good Genius, that Herod (at that time an Infant) should become King of the Jews.
It was so generally known and believed among the Ancients, that all Dæmons were endow'd with this faculty, that Homer makes Elpenor's Soul in his 11th Odyssea, (lin. 69.) prophesy to Ulysses; and Scipio in Silius Italicus, Tyresias in Statius, Æson in Valerius Flaccus, and Erichtho in Lucan, are all introduced as consulting the Souls of the Dead on things to come.
The famous Psellus gives us the precise manner, how they were to obtain exact Answers to their Demands from the Dæmons and Genii; and prescribes their manner of preparing the Altar, and sacrificing the ​Stone Mnizuris on it, which had the power of evocation over them: all which abundantly proves, what we have asserted on this point.
Thus Fact is against my Objectors. But further, the Opinion of the holy infallible Roman Church is against them; which ought to silence these silly Reasoners.
All her Divines, and what is more, all learned Jesuits allow unanimously, that even evil Dæmons can foresee and foretell many things, not only as the Devil in Samuel's shape did, with regard to the impending Judgment of Saul's death, but of distant accidents, by interpreting the Prophecies in Holy Writ, more skilfully than even the Fathers, or Popes and Councils are able to do. Hence it was, say they, that the Devil foresaw Alexander the Great (who is darkly pointed at by Isaiah and Daniel) would conquer the World, and told him so by his Oracle at Delphos: and much more may we suppose Angels, and good Spirits, able to perform in the same way. Nor indeed do they only foresee the rise and fall of Empires, and who will be the instruments therein; but also what the Means, Manner and Time will be, and the ​Causes and Consequences, and even the minuter Effects that accompany them. But if any one desires to be more fully satisfied in these matters, let him read Eusebius de Præparatione Evangelica, and also St. Austin's Treatise de natura Dæmonum, where they will find several reasons assign'd, for their being endow'd with such powers.
Lastly, Reason is also on my side; for as some by the advantages of greater knowledge, parts, age and experience, can see much further than other Men; as he that is placed on an heighth, has a more extended prospect and view, (especially if he has better Eyes and a sharper Sight) than he who is in the vale: since even wise Men, as the excellent Marcus Antoninus observes, may by looking back on past times, and the changes of Empire, foresee in some measure what will happen for the future; since even the humble Loyola, as Maffæus tells us in his Life, was a remarkable instance of this kind, so much more can those spiritual Natures, who are unincumbred with bodily Organs, and have these and many ​other advantages, to infinite degrees above us, be suppos'd to be endow'd with such powers, in proportion as they rise higher, in the unbounded Scale of celestial Beings. Who can say, what unimaginable helps they may borrow, from their intimate acquaintance, if not with the very Decrees, yet at least with the ways of Providence, (whose Agents and Ministers they frequently are, in the great Changes and Revolutions below) as well as from their perfect knowledge of the natural Byass of our Tempers, the Influence of Education and Principles, of our Humours, Appetites and Passions, and from the perpetual course of Causes and Effects, since the Creation. What assistances may they not gain, even as bare Historians, contemplating all the various Accidents of Time, lying naked and undisguis'd in one view, before their piercing Eyes; as Physicians, judging as it were of the Constitution of the World, by the feeling its pulse; or even as meer Astrologers, surveying the immense Revolutions of the celestial Planets, in their different aspects, and the wide train of consequences produced by them, in the vast rotation of Events, in this Scene of things below.
​But as this point is not worth insisting on further, I shall now proceed to an Objection, which gives me infinitely greater trouble, which is, (horresco referens) That it is entirely by my deep skill, in the worst sort of Magick, (or the Black Art, as the Vulgar speak) that I have attain'd to the amazing knowledge in Futurity, discover'd in this Work.
An Objection, which if my Adversaries themselves sincerely believ'd to be just, they would not dare to make, for fear of exposing themselves to my resentments, and that power and art they pretend I am master of; and which therefore, as I might content my self with barely denying, and they could never prove against me, so I shall only answer for the sake of Philosophy, as Apuleius speaks, ut omnes apertè intelligant, nihil in Philosophos non modo vere dici, sed ne falso quidem posse confingi, quod non ex innocentiæ fiducia, quamvis liceat negare, tamen habeant potius defendere.
I am not ignorant from what quarter this aspersion comes; and if it continues to spread, shall not fail to name my unjust Enemies, (as eminent and learned as they think themselves) to the world, and expose ​them to the publick resentment, as wretches of a malign and envious spirit; who, like the people about Mount Atlas, as Herodotus tells us, curse the rising Sun, for the prodigious heat and splendour he lends them.
I well know the only grounds, they go on, next to their envying the little Learning and Glory, which has fallen to my lot; and as Furius Cresinius, when accus'd at Rome of having by Magick drawn away the richness and fertility of his Neighbours Farms to his own, clear'd himself by bringing into Court his Rakes, and Spades, and Plows, which alone produced his large Crops; so I hope my sincere confession of the Celestial Source, to which only I owe this knowledge of Futurity discover'd here, will sufficiently overturn this wicked Objection, tho' I did not frankly lay before the Reader, as I am resolv'd to do, all that the malice of Men or Devils can contrive to urge against me on this head.
It is certain then, that in my retirement in Yorkshire, I did read the more innocent branches of Magick, and apply'd my self much to understand thoroughly all the mysterious Arts of Divination, practis'd by ​the Ancients; and that I am in some degree skill'd in the Anthropomantia, or divining of Men, the Cyathomantia and Oinomantia by Cups and Wine, the Chiromantia by the Lines of the Hand or Palmistry, the Arithmantia or divining by Figures, the celestial Astrologia by the Stars, the Cleidomantia or Bible and Key, the Stichomantia by different kinds of Verses; besides the useful Art of Physiognomia and Metoposcopia, by the mien and persons of Men: all which indeed I was not meanly vers'd in.
I got also a thorough insight in the Gastromantia or divining by the Belly, the Hippomantia by Horses, and especially Hunters, Race and Coach-Horses; the Rabdomantia by the Rods or White Staves, much used at Court, where I both taught and practised it, as many Great Men can vouch for me; and which I think fully as valuable, the Coskinomantia or Art of managing the Sieve and Sheers. I made also some moderate progress in the famous Cubomantia or ​Aleatoria, the Art of divining by the Dye, a Mystery which if well understood would prevent numbers of our Gentry and Nobility being daily stript and plunder'd with impunity, by those judicious and sagacious mortals, the Knights of the Industry; not to mention the Copromantia, as the Greeks call it, or in plain English, the Art of divining from the Dung of Creatures; a matter I wish from my soul, the sage inspectors of our Close-Stools, were a little better skill'd in, than our Weekly Bills of Mortality shew they are.
My Knowledge and Practice in these things, made a little too much noise; especially among the poor party I was then engag'd in, and who had little else to trust to, but a few monthly Predictions I dispers'd for them, and some good Prognostications once a year, from Rome and Bologna: But that my Skill, even in these little Outlines of Magick, went any further, than helping people to stolen Goods, calculating Nativities, or giving some small helps to Almanack-makers, as to Wind and Weather, and predicting a little Treason now and then, from a few Eclipses, Sextiles, Trines, Oppositions, and Conjunctions of the Planets, ​pursuant to the Configurations of the celestial Bodies, and their mutual Radiations, or in the least border'd upon the infernal Branches of Magick, (which I renounce and abhor) I utterly deny.
There is nothing I do abominate more, or hold in greater detestation, than all evil magical Arts: and tho' I know the great Hermolaus Barbarus rais'd the Devil, to consult him, on the meaning of Aristotle's unintelligible term, Εντελεχεια; and that the learned Jesuit Cotton had him examin'd, at the famous Exorcism at Loudun in France, on several abstruse points in Divinity; yet I must own, I cannot even think of such practices, but with the greatest abhorrence.
Far be it from me therefore, to deserve such horrid Imputations, as my envious Maligners would gladly throw on me: and if by any extraordinary insight into these deeper Mysteries of Divination, used by the learned Ancients, I have heedlessly given some seeming grounds for this malevolent Accusation, I hope this candid confession will largely attone for it, and set me right in the opinion of this honest and scrupulous Age. It has too often been the fate of the greatest Names of Antiquity for Virtue ​and Knowledge, as Naudæus shews us, to be blasted with this vile and gross aspersion: and if such divine Persons (Heroës celeberrimi nati melioribus annis) could not escape it, I may the better despise this invidious Objection, in these evil days into which I am fallen; and possibly the next Generation may join my name with those illustrious Personages he has defended, in some future Edition of that learned Frenchman's Apology.
There is another Objection, somewhat allied to this, which I shall now go on to consider: and that is, an Insinuation some people have whisper'd about, as tho' I borrow'd all the vast Scenes of future Events, from my understanding thoroughly the Celestial Alphabet, which many of the greatest Rabbies assure us is wrote by the divine Finger of the Creator in the Stars, plac'd in the Heavens in Hebrew Characters, and which contain all the various accidents which shall ever happen below.
I am not so disingenuous to deny, that I have been very conversant with the works of several of the Jewish Doctors of note, as Maimomides, Nachman, Chomer, Aben-​Ezra, Kimchi, Jomtoff, Levi, Capor, and Abravanel, who have strenuously maintained this opinion; and aver'd that a true Adept in this heavenly Science, may by it predict every change and revolution in Nature and Empire, in this inferiour World. I acknowledge, the learned Jesuit William Postell, has not only confest the truth and infallibility of this Science, but has also called his Creator, in the solemnest manner, to witness his having read in Heaven (in the Stars thus disposed in Hebrew Characters, which Esdras has given the Key of) whatever is in Nature. I confess, if that will satisfy my enemies, that Picus, the learned Picus Mirandola maintains, that several of the Jews hold this opinion as unquestionably true; and I own that even the illustrious Rabbi Chomer, embraced this Sect so far in the 17th Century, as to foretell the ruin of the Turkish and Chinese Empires from it. Indeed, the great Origen is justly taxed by Sixtus Senensis, in the sixth chapter of his Bibliotheca, with maintaining it; and every one knows, Plotinus, by thus foreseeing things, hindered Porphyry from killing himself: and the judicious. Flud, whose Works I am so fond of, was ​as deeply skilled in, and in all future accidents by it, as Postell himself.
Nay, that I may conceal nothing from the Reader, and as I love to bring all learned remarks as close to the eye of common observation as I can; I shall not deny but one of the most skilful and ingenious Writers of Almanacks among us, my honoured and esteemed friend Mr. Vincent Wing, has plainly given into the same opinion, as appears by that fine Lemma he prefixes to all his Almanacks;
But alas! does this prove that I am a follower of their Doctrines, and reduce them to practice, because I have been conversant with those Writers who hold them, and have foretold some few things by them? Is it reasonable, or indeed honest, to infer, that because I may perhaps be more than ordinarily acquainted with such Books, and have profest to esteem them, and the immense erudition of some of their Authors; that therefore I am tainted with all their opinions, and have given into the whole of ​their Hypothesis? No, surely! and above all, since I truly and sincerely aver, though I have seen and studied Gaffarell's Tables of that celestial Alphabet, and his Explanation and Defence of them, yet I have not got the least assistance to this work from those Systems; and that what time soever I may have spent that way, which I candidly own has been too much, I have only been able to discover from them, that they know less of that matter than Patridge and Gadbury did, in their little way of star-gazing. Nay, I must go further, and declare that have found such palpable errors in the whole of their Doctrines, as makes me entirely distrust and despise them; and tho' the reverence I had for the learned Postell, (whom still as a Jesuit I must ever honour) kept me a while in suspence about them; yet I soon abandoned both him and them, when I found him so intoxicated with Enthusiasm, that he was firmly persuaded a Venetian Religious, whom he calls Mother Jane, was sent into the World to save all Woman-kind, as every one may fee in his famous Treatise (which for the sake of that blessed Order I blush to mention) called, The most marvel​lous Victories of Women, printed at Paris in 12$^{mo}$, in 1553.
This stumbling-block therefore, which malice would lay in my dear Reader's way, being thus happily got over, I shall proceed to mention another envious insinuation, which some, who by the indulgence of my friends perus'd this work in manuscript, have ungenerously spread against it. For, say these judicious Persons, if these Memoirs were indeed the performance of a Guardian Angel, they would carry unquestionable marks of their high Original, and the Style, and Matter, and Manner, would evidently shew something celestial in them, and above the stinted force and skill of human wisdom and learning.
It becomes not me, my dear Reader, nor that unexampled modesty I have shewn in these Prefaces, to expose the want of Taste and Judgment, that appears in this false, this groundless, this inhuman method, of attacking such a consummate performance. Let Men use me and it as they please, I am resolved to possess my Soul in patience, and smile at their malice; and especially since I know 'tis as vain and impotent, as if they laboured to tear down the Sun from Hea​ven, because their purblind eyes, dimm'd by his splendour, and unable to survey so glorious an Orb, pretend to discern a few spots in it. I shall therefore silently and quietly pass by the illiterate ignorance of such Barbarians; who thus resemble the Negroes of Africk, that murder all Europeans for the deformity of their white complections, and not coming up to the hideous standard of beauty which they have established. I shall; for my part, make no other return to the ignorance and ill-nature of such Cavillers, than my prayers for their reformation; and shall contentedly, in this matter, chuse to refer myself to the better informed Judgment and Taste of the learned World, and leave them to decide how unjust a surmise this is, which they bring to discredit these Papers.
This only I must say, which with all modest and candid persons, and especially all good Catholicks, must have great weight; That though there might appear some slight, some very slight grounds for this objection, yet the defects they are built on, ought to be imputed to the alterations, interpolations, omissions, disguises, or mistakes, I necessarily, or possibly a little injudiciously, have ​been guilty of, in preparing it for the Press; and were even these faults to be imputed to my good Genius and not to me, yet I never heard it objected against the many Crucifixes and Pictures ador'd in the holy and infallible Church of Rome, as being made by Angels and Apostles, and such celestial hands, that they fell very short of the Works of many famous Sculptors and Painters among Men. It is enough that we are well assur'd of the Celestial Hands that produc'd them, and that single point ought in justice and modesty, to be sufficient to silence the silly criticisms and affected cavils, of such self-conceited Examiners, who would call them down to the common rules of Art and Science.
And thus having————But 'tis time to let the wearied Reader sleep, who when he has rested himself, may (after the delightful entertainment of the remaining Letters, and the vast scenes of future times contained in them) either read at the end of this volume what is to follow in my third Preface; or slight it and throw it by, like the fag end of a Cloth, which serves only to wrap up the rest of the piece, and preserve it from the dirt that would otherwise fall on it.
* ↑ Vide Ceremonies of all Nations, for those of the Jews Prayers.
* ↑ Apud Corn. Agrip. de occulta Philosoph. p. 342. Edit. Lyons.
* ↑ Vid. Hesiodi Opera & Dies, ad lin. 252.
* ↑ In his Lives of Plato and Pythagoras.
* ↑ Plato de factis & dictis Socratis in Theage.
* ↑ Lib. 4$^{to}$ memorabilium & alibi.
* ↑ De Deo Socratis.
* ↑ De Deo Socratis.
* ↑ In vita Socratis.
* ↑ Printed at Cologne, 1613.
* ↑ Peregrinarum Quæst. p. 436.
* ↑ De Angelorum Custodia.
* ↑ Vid. Tillotson's Sermons. vol. 3.
* ↑ Vide Eckium in dicto locol.
* ↑ Vide Lactantium, lib. 2. chap. 15.
* ↑ Carlo Fabri dello Scudo di Christo o vero di David. lib. 2.
* ↑ Dæmonologia, Quæst. 16.
* ↑ Cardan de vita propria.
* ↑ De rerum varietate, lib. 16. p. 221.
* ↑ P. 49, and 50.
* ↑ Froissard Annal. lib. 3. cap. 17.
* ↑ See Tasso's Life by Manso in Italian, and in French by D. C. D. D. T.
* ↑ Patiniana, p. 6.
* ↑ London Edit. 1659.
* ↑ Nepos in vita Attici.
* ↑ Vid. Stanley of the Chaldaick Philosophy. Ch. 4, 5, and 6.
* ↑ St. Austin in Genes.
* ↑ Psell. de Orac.
* ↑ Lib. 6. Cap. 1.
* ↑ Lib. 7. Cap. 4. Gataker's Edit. with Dacier's Notes, Lond. 1697.
* ↑ Ignatii Vita per Maffæum, Lib. 3. Cap. 14.
* ↑ I appeal to my very good Lord the Earl of R—, my Lord C—, my Lord L—, and my Lord G— for the Truth of this Fact; and am content to let the Credit of this Work entirely depend on the report their Lordships, in their great Judgment and Goodness, shall give of my Abilities herein.
* ↑ Vide Basnage's History of the Jews, Book 3. ch. 25.
* ↑ Vid. Gaffarell's Curios. inaudita, c. 12.