ON THE SHADOWS OF IDEAS

will he perceive it? PHILOTHEUS: The ink of a cuttlefish added to a lamp makes men appear as Ethiopians A common Renaissance belief in "natural magic" where additives to light sources could alter visual perception.; so too a mind corrupted by envy judges even the clearly beautiful to be foul. LOGIFER: They say that the eminent Master Scoppet, easily the prince among the physicians of our time, said to the author: let him show him his memory before his art—though it is doubtful whether he refused to provide it out of disdain or inability. PHILOTHEUS: If he had said to him, "show me your urine before I contemplate more solid excrements," perhaps our author would have complied with him; for he would have received him more hospitably, more politely, and more suitably to his own dignity, office, and art. LOGIFER: What shall we say of Master Clyster, the medical doctor, whom it is not right to rank below the one just mentioned? For he differs in no way from that man who, following Arnaldus and Tiberides Likely referring to Arnaldus de Villa Nova and other medieval medical authorities., wishes rather that the tongue of a hoopoe original: "linguam upupæ" be placed upon a forgetful man to confer a most tenacious memory upon the bearer. PHILOTHEUS: Aristotle said, "by playing the lyre, one becomes a lyre-player." If someone were to place another brain upon this wretched man (after extracting the one he has), perhaps by practicing medicine he might finally become a physician. LOGIFER: Doctor Carpophorus, following Proculus and Sabinus, also said that the seat of the mind and memory is divided into three parts. For between the stern and the prow A nautical metaphor for the back and front of the skull., the pineal gland sits in the middle...