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Quoth Sidrophel, If you fuppofe,

Sir Knight, that I am one of those,
I might fufpect, and take th' alarm,
Your business is but to inform;
But if it be, 'tis ne'er the near,

You have a wrong fow by the ear;
For I affure you, for my part,

I only deal by rules of art;

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To raise the devil, and mean one thing,

And that is down-right conjuring;

And in itfelf more warrantable

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Than cheat, or canting to a rabble,

Or putting tricks upon the moon,
Which by confederacy are done.
Your ancient conjurers were wont
To make her from her fphere difmount,
And to their incantation stoop;
They fcorn'd to pore through telescope,
Or idly play at bo-peep with her,
To find out cloudy or fair weather,

R 3

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Which

Which every almanack can tell,

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Perhaps as learnedly and well

As you yourself.---Then, friend, I doubt
You go the farthest way about:
Your modern Indian magician

Makes but a hole in th' earth to pifs in,
And straight refolves all queftions by 't,
And feldom fails to be i' th' right.
The Rofycrucian way 's more fure
To bring the devil to the lure;
Each of them has a feveral gin,

To catch intelligences in.

Some by the nofe, with fumes, trapan them,
As Dunftan did the devil's grannam;
Others with characters and words

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Catch them, as men in nets do birds;

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And fome with fymbols, figns, and tricks,
Engrav'd in planetary nicks,

With their own influences will fetch them

Down from their orbs, arreft, and catch them;

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Ver. 618.] St. Dunstan was made Archbishop of Canterbury, anno 961. His skill in the liberal arts and fciences (qualifications much above the genius of the

age he lived in) gained him first the name of a Conjurer, and then of a Saint: he is revered as such by the omanifts, who keep a holiday in honour of him, yearly, on the 19th of May.

That taught him all the cunning pranks

Of past and future mountebanks.

Kelly did all his feats upon

The devil's looking-glass, a stone,

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Where playing with him at bo-peep,
He folv'd all problems ne'er fo deep.
Agrippa kept a Stygian pug,
I' th' garb and habit of a dog,
That was his tutor, and the cur
Read to th' occult philofopher,
And taught him fubt'ly to maintain
All other fciences are vain.

To this, quoth Sidrophello, Sir,
Agrippa was no conjurer,

Nor Paracelfus, no, nor Behmen;
Nor was the dog a cacodær on,

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But

Ver 631.] This Kelly was chief feer, or, as Lilly calls him, Speculator to Dr. Dee; was born at Worcefter, and bred an apothecary, and was a good proficient in chemistry, and pretended to have the grand elixir, or philofopher's ftone, which Lilly tells us he made, or at leaft received ready-made, from a Friar in Germany, on the confines of the Emperor's dominions. He pretended to fee apparitions in a cryftal or beryl looking-glass (or a round stone like a crystal). Alafco, Palatine of Poland, Pucel, a learned Florentine, and Prince Rofemberg of Germany, the Emperor's Viceroy in Bohemia, were long of the fociety with him and Dr. Dee, and often prefent at their apparitions, as was once the King of Poland himself: but Lilly obferves, that he was fo wicked that the angels would not appear to him willingly, nor be obedient to him.

But a true dog, that would fhew tricks
For th' Emperor, and leap o'er sticks;
Would fetch and carry, was more civil
Than other dogs, but yet no devil;
And whatfoe'er he 's faid to do,

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All that they do, and all they know.

Quoth Hudibras, Alas! what is 't t' us
Whether 'twas faid by Trifmegiftus,
If it be nonfenfe, falfe, or myftic,
Or not intelligible, or fophiftic?

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Can make a gentleman, fcarce a year old,

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Το

Ver. 669, 670.] Such gentry were Thomas Pury the elder, firft a weaver in Gloucefter, then an ignorant folicitor. John Blackston, a poor fhopkeeper of New

castle.

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(As Averrhois play'd but a mean trick, To damn our whole art for eccentric)

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For who knows all that knowledge contains?

Men dwell not on the tops of mountains,

But on their fides, or rifing's feat;

So 'tis with knowledge's vaft height.

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Do not the hiftories of all ages
Relate miraculous prefages

Of ftrange turns, in the world's affairs,
Foreseen by' aftrologers, foothfayers,

Chaldeans,

caftle. John Birch, formerly a carrier, afterwards colonel. Richard Salway, colonel, formerly a grocer's man. Thomas Rainsborough, a fkipper of Lynn, colonel and vice-admiral of England. Colonel Thomas Scot, a brewer's clerk. Colonel Philip Skippon, originally a waggoner to Sir Francis Vere. Colonel John Jones, a ferving-man. Colonel Barkstead, a pitiful thimble and bodkin goldfmith. Colonel Pride, a foundling and drayman. Colonel Hewfon, a one-eyed cobler; and Colonel Harrifon, a butcher. Thefe, and hundreds more, affected to be thought gentlemen, and lorded it over perfons of the first rank and quality.

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