To the Reader.

dismissal: "Go, lost Beast, you who have utterly destroyed me." original Latin: "Abi perdita Bestia, qui me totum perdidisti." This refers to a legend that Agrippa spoke these words to a black dog—supposedly a demon—on his deathbed. This is the most gross lie, and the least probable in every circumstance, that was ever related. Devils are not accustomed to quit their conjurers on the day of death, nor will they be driven away at such times. This is the hour wherein they wait for their prey, and from seeming servants, they become cruel masters.

Besides, is it not most absurd that anyone should dog term: "dog" here means to track or follow closely this devil from Agrippa’s lodging to the river Saône, where (says this Prelate) he plunged himself? original: "Araris," the Latin name for the river Saône in France. Certainly, spirits pass away invisibly, and with such speed that no mortal man can trace them. Believe this, and you may as well believe all the fables of Purgatory.

Now Reader, you have heard the worst; lend a just ear, and you shall hear the best. Johannes Wyerus Johann Weyer (1515–1588), a physician who argued against the witch trials., a professed adversary to ceremonial magic and formerly the secretary to Cornelius Agrippa, speaks thus in his book On the Illusions of Demons. original: "Demonomania," likely referring to Weyer's "De praestigiis daemonum." He wonders that some learned Germans and Italians