Agrippa kept a Stygian pug, 635
I' th' garb and habit of a dog,[1]
That was his tutor, and the cur
Read to th' occult philosopher,[2]
And taught him subt'ly to maintain
All other sciences are vain.[3] 640
To this, quoth Sidrophello, Sir,
Agrippa was no conjurer,
Nor Paracelsus, no, nor Behmen;[4]
Nor was the dog a caco-dæmon,
But a true dog that would show tricks 645
For th' emperor, and leap o'er sticks;
Would fetch and carry, was more civil
Than other dogs, but yet no devil;
And whatsoe'er he's said to do,
He went the self-same way we go. 650
As for the Rosy-cross philosophers,
Whom you will have to be but sorcerers,
What they pretend to is no more
Than Trismegistus did before,[5]
- ↑ As Paracelsus had a devil confined in the pummel of his sword, so "Agrippa had one tied to his dog's collar," says Erastus. It is probable that the collar had some strange unintelligible characters engraven upon it. Mr Butler (in edit. 1674) has the following note on these lines: "Cornelius Agrippa had a dog that was suspected to be a spirit, for some tricks he was wont to do beyond the capacity of a dog. But the author of Magia Adamica has taken a great deal of pains to vindicate both the doctor and the dog from that aspersion; in which he has shown a very great respect and kindness for them both."
- ↑ Meaning Agrippa, who wrote a book entitled, De Occulta Philosophia. See note at p. 25.
- ↑ Bishop Warburton says, nothing can be more pleasant than this turn given to Agrippa's silly book, De Vanitate Scientiarum.
- ↑ Jacob Behmen or Böhmen, the inspired shoemaker, and theosophist, of Lusatia, was merely an enthusiast, who deluded himself in common with his followers. Law, Bishop of Carlisle, edited his works and gave them vogue in this country, and there arc not wanting admirers of them even at the present day.
- ↑ The Egyptian deity Thoth, called Hermes by the Greeks, and Mercury by the Latins, from whom the early chemists pretended to have derived their art, is the mythical personification of almost all that is valuable to man.
Strawberry Hill Collection, turned out to be only a polished piece of cannel coal.
