Chemical-Philosophical Treatise on Natural and Supernatural Things

are forbidden by law, all those means that are contrary to the Holy Scriptures, the word of GOD, and His commandment are also rejected and refuted by true and natural Cabalists. And I give this warning so that a certain distinction and a certain order may be established between natural, supernatural, and contranatural things.

Similarly, all Naiads, Sirens, Succubi, and other Nymphs, and whatever is akin to them, occupy a place among supernatural things, as well as the terrestrial spirits that inhabit the air, offering themselves to hearing, sight, and touch, sometimes foretelling death or other evil, and sometimes signifying fortunes and treasures in certain places by their apparitions. In addition to these are added the fiery spirits, showing themselves in the form of fire and a burning torch, all of which are incorporeal spirits yet not infernal, which lie in wait for the souls of men as if they were eternal treasures, just as the Stygian Lucifer and his excommunicated cohorts are accustomed to do. But such are the Spirits that are presented to men for wonder beyond nature; they are fed, nourished, and pastured solely by the Elements, and afterward they cease in this earthly world, perishing and vanishing together, deprived of a redeemed soul. I add nothing more about these now, but I defer their further treatment to another time and a more convenient place, where I will compose a singular treatise on visions and their spiritual apparitions, which the greater part of the world judges to be contranatural, although in reality they are indeed natural, yet they are discovered to be supernatural regarding their operations and their wondrous qualities.