Magia Adamica, or The Antiquitie of Magic

What? Is it not lawful for my learned friend
To improve his Reason to his greatest end?
Or shall we envy him, because he has more
Of Nature's favors set upon his Score?
Tell me in earnest, do you think it is fit
To believe all that Aristotle wrote?
Though he was blinded, yet Experience can
Sever the Clouds, and make a Clearer man.
If Digby Sir Kenelm Digby, a famous natural philosopher and contemporary of Vaughan. once but view your railing Vein,
He’ll think you are Atoms, not yet formed into a brain;
Then to the Pot you go: Oh, there is the Loss!
There is no Elixir The philosophers' stone, believed to perfect base metals. in you; you are all Dross.
Then sing another Song, you that control
Our Metempsychosis The transmigration of the soul after death. of embodied souls:
Yet Platonist A follower of Plato's philosophy. you are, but cannot tell
Where these mysterious spirits have their Cell.
Thus Ambrose St. Ambrose of Milan, a Church Father. flung dark Persius A Roman satirist known for his obscure style. on the ground,
A blind Contempt! because he was profound.
Look nearer, man; can you not distinguish yet
Between the highest and the lowest wit?
When Cynthia The Moon. to the watery Tethys The sea, often personified as a goddess. hies,
We know not there what Treasures she espies,
What Pearls Margarits in Crystal streams; she sends
Only to us her Influence, and lends
A kind, large Light. But you, poor, trapped Rat,
Like Scythian Dogs, do bark against the Moon.
Great, rare Eugenius! Vaughan's pseudonym, meaning "well-born" or "noble-natured." do not you delay
Your Course, because his Dirt lies in your way.
Stain your white skin for once, and be you not
Surprised like Ermines A legend held that ermines would rather die than soil their white fur., by the daubing Plot.
Mount to your full Meridian, let your Star
Create a Rubric A set of rules or a calendar marker; traditionally written in red ink. to our Calendar,
And we will offer Anthems to your shrine
So long as Date can give a Name to Time.