Part 37

3. But notwithstanding all this, we find persons of great learning and sober judgments, to use much hesitation about these things, and either to suspend their belief of them, as having never seen any such things themselves, and therefore may well conclude as many Wise Men do, that he that hath seen a thing may better believe it than he that hath not seen it, or else are utterly diffident and believe no such matters of fact at all. And indeed there is no greater folly than to be very inquisitive and laborious to find out the causes of such a Phenomenon, as never had any existence, and therefore Men ought to be cautious and be fully assured of the truth of the effect, before they adventure to explicate the cause. And I find both my Lord _Bacon_, and that honourable and learned person Mr. _Boyle_, when they have occasion to mention these things, do it with extream caution, and always with an If or some other note of signal dubitation, and also the Lord _Mountaigue_ in his Essays, and our Countreyman Mr. _Osburne_ (no contemptible persons) in his writings seem utterly diffident of any such matter.

[Sidenote: _Anim. 4._]

4. Again if we consider how easy a thing it is, for the most vigilant, attentive and wisest person either to impose upon himself, being drawn by those overruling notions that he suckt in from his childhood, whereby the will and affections being never so little byassed the judgment will be presently swayed that way: or how subject the most wary and perspicacious person is to be imposed upon by the cunning craftiness or confederacy of others, or drawn to believe a meer impossibility, by the perseverant asseverations of what others have seen and known, may certainly induce us, though not utterly to reject all relations of this nature, yet to stand like _Janus_ in this field of doubtful perplexity.

[Sidenote: _Anim. 5._]

5. If to this we add the consideration, how rare and seldome these things happen, and how long (though it argue but negatively) many Physicians have practised, and yet have never met with any such strange accidents: and withal that many of these vomitings of strange stuff, and the like have been meer counterfeit juglings and Impostures, as was manifest in the Boy of _Bilson Sommers_ of _Nottingham_ and diverse others: besides, I that have practised Physick above forty years could never find any such thing in truth and reality, but have known many that have counterfeited these strange vomitings, and the like, which we and others have plainly laid open and detected. So that though we shall not simply deny the verity of these relations, so we cannot but believe, that some of them have been cheats and delusions, and others meer mistakes of ignorance and vain credulity, and in the belief of any of them, that we ought to proceed with much cautiousness and careful foresight.

3. The next thing that _Helmont_ lies down (after he thinketh that he hath proved the matters of fact sufficiently) is the assigning of the true cause (as he thinketh) of the bringing to pass these wondrous effects; And these he maketh twofold, first the Devil, by reason of the league with the Witch, doth bring and convey the things to be injected to the place, or near the object; and makes them invisible by his spiritual power: Secondly that the Witch by the strength of her imagination and the motion of her free will, (which he holds to be the only peculiar prerogative of mankind, and to remain both with Men and Women after the fall, namely a power by their free wills and force of imagination, to create or frame seminal and efficacious Ideas to work as it were _ad nutum_) doth convey or inject these strange things into the bodies of those they would hurt or torment, and that in this case as the ultimate attempt of nature, there is and may be a penetration of dimensions, and these things he attempteth to prove after this manner, which we shall first amply lay down and relate, and afterwards we shall give some notes and observations upon them, as things of great weight and consideration.

[Sidenote: _Reas. 1._]

“1. He granteth that the evil spirit hath a power motive, yet therewith cannot hurt the innocent as he pleaseth. And further he tells us that these injected things do enter invisibly. And that this one thing is meerly Diabolical. For the most miserable scoffer (he saith) seeing he hath nothing that is real left to his liberty, yet he hath vain appearances: Because he is the Father of lies, he feigneth those things and maketh them to appear falsly, or otherwise than they are, from the beginning of the World. And in these juglings the Man that is the Devils bondslave worketh nothing at all. But by what manner the Devil maketh things visible in themselves to be invisible, or how he involves them in his invisible spirit, he confesseth that he is not a sedulous searcher of the works of Satan, that belong unto him in propriety. And therefore that the Devil doth transfer the things to be injected, being made invisible, unto the object, the Idea of humane desire directing. And because it is not permitted to the Devil, to enter into Man, much less that he may hurt him, and least of all with an invisible burden; therefore he useth the free motive power of the Man bound unto him. The Man doth therefore impress his free motive Blas into the body made invisible, but the Devil doth carry it unto the Man, into whom it is to be injected. And as a knife by the desire and consent of the person wounding is fixed into the flesh of him that is wounded: So this body made invisible by the Devil, is injected into the body of the person to be inchanted, by the Idea of the motive power of the Witch: Satan conspiring to this because of the purposed direction of hurting the person.

[Sidenote: _Reas. 2._]

2. Truly I believe (he saith) that it doth fight with Piety, if a power exceeding nature be attributed to the Devil. As though Satan should be above nature, and should operate things impossible to nature. I grant that the manner is exotick and strange, but yet notwithstanding it ought to be contained within the limits of nature. And if it be said: the manner is unknown by which nature should do it. The manner is also equally unknown by what means Satan should do it. Therefore they gain nothing who refer the work of nature unto the Devil. But whether they offend or not, let others look to it. For at least it is an invention of immense sloathfulness, to refer all things to the Devil that we do not understand. Neither would I (saith he) have the Devil called upon to satisfie our questions by a temerarious attribution of power.

[Sidenote: _Reas. 3._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 1._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 2._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 3._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 4._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 5._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 6._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 7._]

3. “Therefore (he saith) I will shew, that the aid of Satan is not at all needful, that some solid body may be drawn without the comminution of it self, by a passage far less than it self. For the evil spirit, though he have a motive Blas; yet notwithstanding it is against piety, that he can hurt the innocent at his pleasure. Which certainly should come to pass, if every where he could inject these things, according to his nefarious will, for (he saith) I have seen these things happen to innocent children, to Virgins that were pious and devoted to God after a singular manner. And to prove this point he giveth these instances. _Cornelius Gemma de Cosmocriticis_ doth recite that he had seen a piece of three pounds or 48. ounces weight, of a brass Cannon, which a Maid the Daughter of a Cooper had voided by stool, with its characters or letters, together with an Eele wrapt in its secundines. But it is impossible to nature to melt powdered metal in us, and to be detained so many months in its pristine figure in the Intestines, or that the Eele should so often be made into small powder and to arise again from death. And that pieces of wood and leather should so often be turned into small powder, and again restored into their former condition. For (he saith) I have seen at _Bruxells_ in the year 1599. that an Oxe having taken three Herbs did vomit a Dragon with a tail like an Eele, a body as of leather, a Serpentine Head, and not less than a Partridge. There is (he saith) an History of a Polonish Countryman, seen lately of the Son of the Lord _Ericius Puteanus_. A certain rustick did attempt himself to cut the Squinsie that he had in his throat with a short Knife, which at unawares he swallowed, and that at the length he did void the same at the right side of the _Abdomen_, or lower belly, with much rotten matter after great tortures, and survived in health. Also at _Vilvordia_ in the year 1636. a Countryman known unto me (he saith) intending to feed a Cow, did daily give her a bowl, in which he had boiled Pot-Herbs with bran. At last she waxeth leaner more and more every day, and begun to halt upon the right thigh: The Cow being killed, the short Knife of his Wives bended back into the haft of Box, is found hid betwixt the ribs and the shoulder blade: For the Country Woman in cutting the rape root, had left her Knife amongst the Pot-Herbs, and the Cow by drinking had swallowed it. Also (he saith) _Ambrosius Paræus_ relateth a story of a certain man whom Thieves had compelled to swallow a Knife, which he afterwards being sound did void by an Apostume of the side. _Alexander Benedictus_ (he saith) doth mention another, to whom an Arrow had penetrated into his back, the hook of which of the breadth of three fingers he did void by stool without hurt. The same Author relateth of a certain Girl of _Venice_ who had swallowed a Needle, and that after two years she voided it by urine, crusted over with a stony substance. Also (he saith) _Antonius Benevenius_ doth relate, that an Hetruscan Woman had swallowed a Copper Needle or Pin, which three years after she voided at the Navil, and was sound. _Valesius de Taranta_ (he saith) mentioneth a Girl of _Venice_ (perhaps the same) who voided by urine a Pin of three fingers long. A certain Capucine at _Eburum_ called _Bullonius_, by Sirname _Hamptean_, did with much aversion of mind drink up an huge living Spider, which he had seen fall into the Chalice in the time of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Within a few days he had a Phlegmon or bile that did arise in his right thigh, and with much rotten matter from thence he voided the whole Spider, but being dead. A young Merchant of _Antwerp_ being playing at _Venice_ in his mouth with an unripe Ear of Barley, did swallow the same with an huge fear of suffocation: From thence after three Weeks in the left side above the Girdle, an Apostume appeared, and at the length with the rotten matter the same Ear of a yellow colour is extracted whole. And he escaped sound. With _Fernelius_ a Student is related to be cured by him who had voided an Ear of Corn by the ribs. Also Writers do commemorate, that the young one sometimes dead and wasted in the Womb, hath voided the bones through the Womb, the belly, by the navil, and sometimes by the fundament. More things of this nature do every where occur amongst Authors worthy of credit.”

[Sidenote: _Reas. 4._]

4. From which matters of fact he thus concludeth: “By which (he saith) it is manifest, that solid bodies sufficiently great, have penetrated the Stomach, the Bowels, the Womb, the Caul, the lower Belly, the skin upon the inside of the Ribs, the Bladder, Membranes (he saith) impatient of so great a wound. That is to say, that Knives have been transmitted through these Membranes without wound, which is equivalent to the penetration of dimensions made in nature without the help of the Devil. And that an human body may be drawn through a small hole, through which a Cat might only pass, but not through a Wall. Verily that the Devil cannot break a paper Window without the consent of his Master, is (he saith) manifest by the process and arrest of _Ludovicus Godfredus_ the Witch, pronounced at _Aix_ in _Narbona_, the last of _April 1611_. I pray you where have the three pounds of brass, of the Cannon of War, marked with its letters, laid hid? how for so many months hath the dross shined, in what part was the piece of brass greater than the intestine contained? While I was (he saith) shewing a necessary vacuity in the air, I promised that I would declare, that although the penetration of bodies by the primary law of nature, and by the common way of Artificers be forbidden: notwithstanding that while a body doth totally pass over into the dominion of the spirit, and is carried over, and is by that as it were weakened; then bodies do naturally and mutually penetrate one another, at least in that part that is porous: Because that the spirit then doth inclose the body under it self, and therefore as it were taketh away the dimensions.”

[Sidenote: _Reas. 5._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 1._]

5. And to confirm and open this point more fully, he saith: “I will premise some things. The desire of eating Muscles did invade a Woman with Child. And she eateth some of them so very hastily, that she did devour the raw shells, twice or thrice broken with her teeth. Thereupon by and by within an hour, she bringeth forth a sound and adult Child, with the same half-chewed shells, and wounded in the belly. Therefore the shells without the aperture of the membranes, had forthwith penetrated the Stomach, Womb and Secundines: or else there were new shells generated upon the young Child. Neither could this later be true. For they were the true fragments of the Muscles, and not figuratively framed to the imitation of them. Furthermore, the appetite is not carried to a thing unknown: Therefore the appetite of eating the Muscles was not of the Child, but of the Woman. Therefore it was not necessary that new Muscles should be generated about the Child; for they were desired by the Mother that they might become nutriment to her, not the Child. Otherwise by the same argument of Identity, what things soever should by the appetite be desired, should be generated about the young Child; of whom when they could not be digested, they should be always either left remaining about the Child, or should there putrefie. Which is false both ways: for if it should putrefie, that which is desired would cause abortion; or if it were conserved there, it would be found regularly. For the Child is only nourished by the Navil: Therefore those external Muscles could neither be wished by the Child, nor could be profitable unto it, and by consequence, were neither for an end made anew, but sent to the young one by reason that it was an uterine appetite. The appetite is always directed from the end; but the Woman with Child desired the Muscles not the shells, neither that the Muscle being a living animal might remain in its former state, in which it was unprofitable to the Mother, nor could satisfie her appetite; and therefore much less hath had occasion of generating new and unprofitable shells about the young one. But however it be taken, the appetite was not to the shells twice or thrice broken. For if the Fishes had been taken forth of the shells, she had eaten the fish the shells being left. Therefore the concomitance and concision of the shells were accidental to the appetite. I suppose truly (he saith) that as the desire, terrour, _&c._ do generate seminal Idea’s, which the hand of the Woman with Child doth send down to the young one, and doth depinge or figurate it in a set time: So the joy of finding that which the appetite did desire, doth bring that very thing to the Child. So verily the heaviness of heart of him that swallowed the Knife, the horror of having drunk the Spider, and of the Ear of Barley devoured, did repel or drive back those things beyond the membranes not able to suffer a wound without death. And these things (he saith) of things injected, entring by the ordinary power of nature, without the suspicion of Diabolical cooperation.”

[Sidenote: _Reas. 6._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 1._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 2._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. 3._]

6. Now he proceedeth to prove penetration of dimensions by natural power in another way. “Something like to these (he saith) appeareth in things that from within are to without taken away, which I will dispatch (he saith) in one or two examples. The Wife of a Taylor of _Mechlinia_, seeth a Souldier before the doors to lose his hand in a conflict: Forthwith being stricken with horror, she brought forth a Daughter with one hand, the other awanting, with the stump all bloody, which hand of hers could not be found, and the flux of blood killed the Child. The Wife of _Marke de Vogeler_, a Merchant of _Antwerpe_ in the year 1602. seeing a Souldier begging whose right Arm an Iron Bullet in the Siege of _Ostend_ had taken away, and which he carried about as yet bloody; by and by after that she brought forth a Daughter wanting an Arm, and that the right one too, the shoulder of whom being yet bloody the Chirurgion ought to consolidate. She hath Married to a Merchant of _Amsterdam_, by name _Hoochcamer_; and is yet living this year 1638. But the right Arm was no where to be found, neither the bones or any corruption did appear, into which the Arm might be wasted in a little hour. But the Souldier not being seen, the Child had two Arms, neither could the Arm that was torn off be annihilated. Therefore the Womb being shut the Arm was taken away. But who tore it away naturally, and whither was it taken? certainly trivial reasons do not square or agree in so great a portent or Paradox. I am not he that will say these things. I will say this at the least: That the Arm was not taken away or torn off by Satan. Furthermore it was of less weight to carry away elsewhere the Arm torn off, than to have torn the Arm from the whole body without death. The Wife of a Merchant (he saith) known unto us, as soon as she heard that thirteen were to be beheaded (it happened at _Antwerpe_ in the time of the Duke of _Alva_) and Women with Child are led with inordinate appetites, she determined to see the decollations. Thereupon she ascends the Chamber of a Widdow that was a familiar friend to her that lived in the Market-place. And the spectacle being seen, forthwith the pain of Child-birth took her, and she brought forth a full grown infant with a bloody neck, whose head did no where appear.”

[Sidenote: _Reas. 7._]

7. From these most stupendious and almost incredible stories, he draweth these conclusions. “I do not find (he saith) that human nature doth abominate the penetration of dimensions, seeing it is most frequent to the seeds of things. For in the seeds of things, that primevous Energie of penetrating bodies, doth yet consist, but not subject to force, art or human arbitrement. For there are many bodies many times more ponderous than the matter of which they are framed. It is necessary (he saith) that more than fifteen parts of water do fall in together into one, that one part of gold may from thence be made. For weight is not made of nothing: but argueth the ponderating matter in the ballance. Therefore water doth naturally penetrate its body so often as the gold doth overweigh the water. Therefore the domestick and daily progress of seeds in Generations, doth require that the body doth penetrate it self by condensation, which is altogether impossible to an Artificer. We grant (he saith) that there are pores in the water, these notwithstanding cannot contain so much as fourteen times the quantity of its whole. Therefore it is ordinary, that some parts of the water do penetrate themselves into one place.”

[Sidenote: _Reas. 8._]

8. And to illustrate this going before he saith: “By an example, _Aqua fortis_ doth by its spirit make Brass, Iron or Silver remaining opacous in their natures so transparent that they cannot be seen, and doth pass the metal thorough filtring paper, which otherwise will not transmit, no not the most small powder, which metal doth essentially remain still a metal _in specie_ or kind. But not that the similitude of penetration of dimensions doth uniformly square with the propounded example of the metal. Because reasons do not agree to so great a Paradox, wherein (he saith) I willingly acknowledge the manner to be indemonstrable _à priori_.” Even as no man can know by what means the Idea impressed in the seeds doth figurate, direct, and dispose the things that it hath framed. And therefore we are forced to hunt forth the same _à posteriori_.

[Sidenote: _Reas. 9._]

9. From all which he draweth this Conclusion. “There is therefore another far different power of incantation, besides the Devils. And therefore natural and free. He hath no Dominion over the just. But if the power of inchanting were free to the Devil, also it would be equally free to him to kill by a Knife or a Maul. And so none should be free. Therefore the Witch (he saith) doth, _per ens naturale_, form imaginatively a free Idea, which is natural and noxious. Which Idea Satan cannot form. Because that the formation of Idea’s do require the Image of God and a free power: And therefore the Witches do operate by a natural force, no less against the just and innocent, than against wicked men. Seeing that inchantments do more easily infect Children than those of ripe age, sooner Women than stout Men: A certain natural power is signified to be limited to the inchantment, to which it is easily resisted by a stout and couragious mind. The Devil therefore offereth filth and poysons to his Clients, that he may knit fermentally Idea’s formed in the Imagination of the Witches unto them. And he preserveth that Ideal poyson, that it may not be blown away with the wind, or being covered in the earth, it be not destroyed by putrefaction. But he carrieth that poison locally near to the object, to be inchanted: But to apply it, or carry it into the man, he by no means is able. And therefore the Witch doth also send forth another _executive medium_, or mean emanative and commanding, which mean is the Idea of a strong desire. For it is inseparable to the desire to be carried about things wished for. To all which the Devil as a Spectator doth assist in the conduction.”

[Sidenote: _Reas. 10._]

10. “For (he saith) in truth, I have demonstrated already, that operative means are solely in the power of man. For only God is the most chiefly glorious Creator, to be infinitely praised, who hath Created the Universe forth of nothing. But man as far forth as he is the Image of God doth forth of nothing create certain _Entia rationis_, or _non_-Entities in their beginning, and that in the proper gift of the Phantastical virtue. Which are notwithstanding something more than meerly a privative or negative being. For first of all while these conceived _Idea_’s do at length cloath themselves in the species or shape fabricated by the Imagination, they become Entities now subsisting in the middest of that Vestment, to which by the whole they are equally in them. And thus far they are made seminal and operative Entities: of which, to wit their assumed subjects are forthwith totally directed. But this power is given to man alone. Otherwise a seminal power to propagate, is given to the Earth, to Bruits, Plants, _&c._ Also the Dog by his madness can transfer or change his spittle or _saliva_ into poyson, because it is peculiar to his kind or species. Which also is obvious in divers poysons of animals. But to form Idea’s abstracted from their species and adjacent proprieties, that is given to none but man.”