Anima Magica Abscondita

where beyond fancy original: "Fanfie", then the fancies of these men, being nowhere beyond their authors, may rest on the same pillow. This sect then may be styled a "people of dreams" original: δημός ὀνείρων (demos oneiron). Their conceptions are not grounded on any reason existing in nature, but they would ground nature on reasons framed and principled by their own conceptions. Their philosophy is built on general, empty maxims—things of such stretch and latitude that they may be applied to anything, but lead to the discovery of nothing. These are the first features original: "Lineaments" of their monster, and in reference to them they have many subordinate errors which pretend to have a symmetry with their fundamentals, but in truth have none at all. These later subtleties original: "Quillets," meaning petty distinctions or legalistic quibbles are so minced with divisions and distinctions that their very patrons are doubtful how to state them. I could compare their physiology The study of natural philosophy or the physical world to a hunting scene in a tapestry original: "Chase in Arras", where there is much resemblance to life, but nothing of truth. It is the child of fancy, a romance told in logical arguments original: "Syllogisms", a fabric of their own brain, like that cobweb countryside which Lucian’s spiders planted between the Moon and Venus A reference to Lucian of Samosata’s "A True Story," an early work of science fiction satire. Nature in general (they say) is the principle of motion and rest original: "Principium Motus, & quietis". A form is the "account of the essence" original: λόγος της οὐσίας (logos tes ousias)—a definition they know not what to make of—and the soul is actuality original: ἐντελέχεια (entelecheia), or the actualization of an organic body original: "actus Corporis Organici". These two last descriptions (for they are no substan—