Magia Naturalis, oder Hauß-, Kunst- und Wunder-Buch

Also how the sun's fire, introduced
according to the seasons,
governs the whole world through
the circle of the twelve signs.

For the celestial bodies, through their manifold positions and movements, allow much good to flow unto the earth, and also greatly increase the powers to suffer and to act here below, from which then various properties of many things arise. Hence, among the Platonic teachers, much questioning has arisen in what manner the influence of celestial things is received and taken up here below.

6. Furthermore, he must also be well-versed in Optica and the art of vision, that he may know how the eye can be deceived; how forms behave in water, and in all kinds of mirrors; how these represent images as if hanging outside in the air; how far distant things can be placed quite clearly before the eyes: Yea, how one can even play with fire at a great distance; in all of which a great part of this wondrous art consists, and these sciences are all handmaidens to the same, without the learning of which no one can rightly bear the name of a Magus and natural artist.

7. Then he must also be specially endowed by nature, so that he knows how to manage something with manual skill in a mechanical and artfully ordered manner: For an artist may know as much or as little as he will (it matters almost

the same) if he knows not how to set his hand to the task, he will strive in vain for the intended goal. And there are some who, by the grace of heaven, are so skillful in such things as if they had been diligently cast into such a mold by God. Yet I say this not in such a way as if one could not also be made skillful through labor and art; or if one has good gifts, as if they could not be improved, and one who is reasonably perfect could not be further sharpened and encouraged.

8. And thus he must now, first and foremost, recognize things deeply and thoroughly, and observe them with diligence, and prepare them: Only afterward should he proceed to the work and undertake nothing thoughtlessly. I say this because, if a thing afterward does not succeed for him and he knows not what is happening to him, he should not blame me, but his own ignorance. For such errors do not come from him who teaches a thing, but from him who undertakes it: And when it fails under the hand of an unskilled person, they will afterward blame the art itself, and hold that to be a blind stroke of luck and chance which is nonetheless fundamentally true and has its necessary causes.

9. But if you wish to make something appear so much the more wondrous, then do not let the causes thereof be much known: For one only marvels