BOOK ONE.

original: "Conueniat, quando armatas deducere classes, Aut tempestiua in syluis euertere pinum."
It is fitting to know when to lead forth armed fleets,
Or when to fell the pine tree in the woods at the right season.

Theology, moreover, teaches what God is, what the mind is, what intelligence is, what an angel is, and finally what a demon is; it teaches of the soul, of religion, of sacred institutions, rites, temples, observations, and sacred mysteries. It also instructs concerning faith, miracles, the power of words and figures, the secret operations and mysteries of seals The "seals" or "sigils" refer to symbolic diagrams used to represent spiritual forces, and as Apuleius says, it teaches us to rightly know and be skilled in the laws of ceremonies, the divine law of sacred things, and the justice of religions. But now I shall collect myself. Magic itself embraces, unites, and activates these three most powerful faculties The three faculties are Natural Philosophy (Physics), Mathematics, and Theology. Therefore, it was deservedly held by the ancients as the highest and most holy science. This science is found illustrated by the most serious authors and most famous writers: among whom especially Zamolxis and Zoroaster shone so brightly that they were believed by many to be the inventors of this science. Following in their footsteps were Abbaris the Hyperborean, Charmondas, Damigeron, Eudoxus, and Hermippus; and other more famous priests emerged, such as Hermes Trismegistus literally "Thrice-Greatest Mercury", Porphyry, Iamblichus, Plotinus, Proclus, Dardanus, Orpheus the Thracian, Gog the Greek, Germa the Babylonian, and Apollonius of Tyana. Osthanes also wrote excellently in this art; his books, dug up from a tomb, were illustrated with commentaries by Democritus of Abdera. Furthermore, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Plato, and many of the most noble philosophers traveled to learn this art; having returned, they preached it with the highest sanctity and held it among their secrets. Indeed, we have it as a certainty that Pythagoras and Plato, for the sake of learning it, visited the priests of Memphis and traveled through almost all of Syria, Egypt, Judea, and the schools of the Chaldeans, so that the most holy monuments of Magic might not be hidden from them, and they might be imbued with divine things. Whoever, therefore, now desires to study in this faculty, if he is not learned in Physics (in which the qualities of things are declared and in which the hidden properties of every being are found), and if he is not a practitioner of mathematics (and in the aspects and figures of the stars, upon which the sublime power and property of every thing depends), and if he is not learned in theology (where the immaterial substances that dispense and administer all things are manifested), he will not be able to understand the rationality of Magic. For no perfect work exists from Magic itself, nor is there any work truly magical, which does not embrace these three faculties.

Concerning the four elements, and their qualities, and their mixtures with one another. Chapter III.

A decorative square woodcut initial 'Q' containing a seated figure, likely a scholar or author, at a desk or lectern, surrounded by foliate flourishes.
There are four elements and primary foundations of all corporal things: fire, earth, water, and air. From these, all "elementated" things Things composed of elements in these lower regions are composed; not by way of a mere heap, but according to transmutation and union; and again, when they decay, they are resolved back into elements. However, none of the sensible elements is pure, but they are mixed more or less and are transmutable into one another: just as earth, becoming muddy and dissolved, becomes water, and that same water, thickened and condensed, becomes earth; through heat...