Instruction on Natural Magic and its Medical Use

It is indeed the common, yet reprehensible, custom of people that they immediately condemn the use of a thing because of its abuse. As the diligent researchers of nature saw that the same had happened to Magia, they have endeavored to distinguish the useful and necessary from the presumptuous, and have divided it into natural, artificial or mathematical, and devilish (e) magic.

We shall pass over natural Magia, of which we will treat in the following chapters, in silence here, and only explain in this chapter which is the artificial and which is the devilish.

The artificial or mathematical Magia, as a very clever successor to nature, which is based purely on mathematical sciences without natural powers, brings forth astonishing things that are quite similar to nature. Whoever wishes to exercise this must be endowed with a sharp intellect and excellent understanding, and be provided with complete knowledge of physics and mathematics, if he wishes to perform something that is worthy of wonder.

(e) Beyond this, Hannemann in Nov. Lit. Mar. Balth. Anno 1699, Month of Sept., p. 281, divides Magia into true and devilish: The former into prophetic and active; the latter into sorcerous, deceptive, and superstitious.