For the past twenty years or more I have walked among the draymen and the car-men, the merchants and the idle people, the rakeh.e.l.ls and the porters; I know the ca.s.socks and the ruffs, the caps and the periwigs; I know the hospitals for the poor and the fair churches for the rich. I know the wards of Portsoken and Downegate, where there are many murders; of Langborne and Billingsgate, where those commonly known as jarkmen and courtesy-men are to be found; of Candlewick Street and Walbroke, which are notorious for suicides; of Vintry and Cordwainer, where there are crimes not to be mentioned. I know Ratcliffe, Limehouse, Whitechapel, St Katherine, Stretford, Hogston, Sordycke and all those sad regions beyond the walls. It was in Thames Street I met a female, in Tower Street that I courted her, and in St Dunstan that I married her. In Crutched Friars I buried my still-born children, two male and one female, and beyond the postern gate in the Minories I laid my brothers in the earth.
Yet within this city of death I hear again the cries for Cherries ripe, apples fine, Cherries ripe, apples fine, for for Fine Seville oranges Fine Seville oranges and and Ripe hartychokes, Ripe hartychokes, for scarves and rushes and kindling wood. I know where to find a pair of gloves or a pair of spectacles, a painter"s easel or a barber"s comb, a trumpet or a close-stool. I know such places of common a.s.sembly as the ordinaries and the gaming-houses, the c.o.c.kpits and the bowling alleys. I know the haberdashers of London Bridge and the goldsmiths of West Cheap, the grocers of Bucklersbury and the drapers of Watling Street, the hosiers of Cordwainer Street and the shoemakers of London Wall, the skinners of Walbroke and the ironmongers of Old Jewry. Wherewithall there rises such a noise of tumbrils and carts, such a thundering of coaches and chariots, with hammers beating in one place and tubs being hooped in another, with men and women and children in such shoals, that I might be in the belly of the monster Leviathan. Yet it was here, even here, that I conducted my studies philosophical and experimental; among the clamour, and almost in the very midst of the stinking crowd, I searched within the bright gla.s.s of nature and found the exhalations of the for scarves and rushes and kindling wood. I know where to find a pair of gloves or a pair of spectacles, a painter"s easel or a barber"s comb, a trumpet or a close-stool. I know such places of common a.s.sembly as the ordinaries and the gaming-houses, the c.o.c.kpits and the bowling alleys. I know the haberdashers of London Bridge and the goldsmiths of West Cheap, the grocers of Bucklersbury and the drapers of Watling Street, the hosiers of Cordwainer Street and the shoemakers of London Wall, the skinners of Walbroke and the ironmongers of Old Jewry. Wherewithall there rises such a noise of tumbrils and carts, such a thundering of coaches and chariots, with hammers beating in one place and tubs being hooped in another, with men and women and children in such shoals, that I might be in the belly of the monster Leviathan. Yet it was here, even here, that I conducted my studies philosophical and experimental; among the clamour, and almost in the very midst of the stinking crowd, I searched within the bright gla.s.s of nature and found the exhalations of the spiritus mundi. spiritus mundi.
I am now removed to a house in Clerkenwell with my wife and household, and have been these last fifteen years (my father, being feeble and frail to the last degree, is lodged within a charity). It is in a place of healthfulness, close by Clerkenwell Green and to the side of Turnmill Street where the clerks" well is still to be found; my garden at the back slopes downward to the Fleet and to the north are the fields of Hockley where the archers shoot at their targets. But it is an ancient, rambling pile, and would require another Minos to trace its regions, with its bedchambers and byrooms and pa.s.sages and parlours and other rooms severally part.i.tioned. Here I sit in my library, on the upper storey, with my papers scattered around me. For this is the room in which all my labours and pains have been bestowed to win glory for my native country, and where I have pored over diverse ma.n.u.scripts and pamphlets and other printed matter. Close beside this chamber, across the upper landing, is my laboratory with all the necessary vessels, some of earth, some of metal, some of gla.s.s, and some of mixed stuff; here are my retorts and receivers for the purposes of pyrotechnia, so that the walls and ceiling are now heavily smoked by my fiery studies. I have a little part.i.tion wall here also, beyond which is my storehouse replenished with chemical stuff and such curiosities as may advance my art, viz. one great bladder with about four pounds" weight of a very sweet substance like a brownish gum. Here, too, are bags containing certain powders together with leaden caskets holding gla.s.ses of liquid for the greater service and profit of my studies. There is also a transparent tube here, to be mightily covered by earth and dung. Of which nothing more may be revealed at this time.
Yet there are few things in this house, few things in this kingdom, that can compare with my library. Here are my globes of Gerardus Mercator"s best making though with my own hand I have set down upon them certain reformations both geographical and celestial, such as the places and motions of several comets that I have observed. Here also is my hour-gla.s.s to measure the time of my studies justly, and the universal astrolabe new minted by Thomas Hill in Cheapside. But my true glory lies within my books: printed or anciently written, bound or unbound, there are near four thousand of them. Some are in Greek, some in Latin, some in our native tongue, and yet all found by me, yes, found and gathered even when I was ready to die by false accusation of magic in Queen Mary"s reign. Some of these hardly gotten monuments were taken in a manner out of the dunghill, since they were found by me in the corner of despoiled churches or monasteries where they were close to ruin from rotting away. Some came from a great case or frame of boxes which I took up from the decayed library of an ancient house (still lying desolate and waste at this very hour, beyond Pinner): each had their peculiar t.i.tles noted on the forepart of the boxes with chalk only, yet at the sight of them my heart leapt up. I knew them to contain hundreds of very rare evidences, which now I keep here in stalls and presses or locked within great barred chests. For their exact copying, and for my own writings, I need a plentiful supply of pens and inks; so here, at my left hand, are quills of all sorts. When the ink runs down the hollow trunk of my pen, then on this writing-table, with all my notes scattered about me, I begin to chronicle marvels.
But I need not tell you that there are also marvels within my books among them wonderful and rare works by Zoroaster, Orpheus, and Hermes Trismegistus, as well as the sheets of old ephemerides. This room has become a very university or academy for scholars of diverse sorts, and there are such writings here as are above price, viz. Reuchlin his De verbo mirifico De verbo mirifico and and De arte cabalistica, De arte cabalistica, Brunschwick"s Brunschwick"s Book of Distillation, The New Pearl of Great Worth Book of Distillation, The New Pearl of Great Worth set forth by Petrus Bonus of Pola but newly edited by Ja.n.u.s Lacinius, Cornelius Agrippa his renowned set forth by Petrus Bonus of Pola but newly edited by Ja.n.u.s Lacinius, Cornelius Agrippa his renowned De occultia philosophia, De incantationibus De occultia philosophia, De incantationibus by Pomponazzi, the by Pomponazzi, the Corpus Hermetic.u.m Corpus Hermetic.u.m collected by Turnebus as well as collected by Turnebus as well as Clavicula Solomonis Clavicula Solomonis and and The Sun of Perfection, The Sun of Perfection, which are both very useful and pleasant to read. Nor can I forget that most precious jewel of other men"s labours which I have yet recovered, Trithemius his which are both very useful and pleasant to read. Nor can I forget that most precious jewel of other men"s labours which I have yet recovered, Trithemius his Steganographia. Steganographia. Neither will I omit the wonderful and divine sciences which are published forth by Paracelsus himself, or the connections therewithal to be traced through Neither will I omit the wonderful and divine sciences which are published forth by Paracelsus himself, or the connections therewithal to be traced through De harmonia mundi De harmonia mundi of Francesco Giorgi, of Francesco Giorgi, De inst.i.tutione musicae De inst.i.tutione musicae of Boethius, and Paciolus his of Boethius, and Paciolus his De divina proportione. De divina proportione. These are not to be found for money at any market or in any stationer"s shop, since in truth they are works for secret study. These are not to be found for money at any market or in any stationer"s shop, since in truth they are works for secret study.
Among these bound volumes lie fair copies of my own writings which, for the everlasting memory of men, are marked with my London seal of Hermes. I have not spent these many years in composing riddles or merry tales, but have rather thought continually of the generations yet to come. And just as the levels of the cosmos are to be known as elemental, intellectual and celestial, so have I placed my own works in varying degrees of art: from those which are suited to the best understanding of mechanics, such as The Elements of Geometry The Elements of Geometry and and Mathematical Preface Mathematical Preface (here I include (here I include General and Rare Memorials Pertaining to the Perfect Art of Navigation, General and Rare Memorials Pertaining to the Perfect Art of Navigation, together with sundry volumes in horology, perspective, geometry and other arts), to those which are framed for the comprehension of the wise, such as my together with sundry volumes in horology, perspective, geometry and other arts), to those which are framed for the comprehension of the wise, such as my Propodeumata Aphoristica, Propodeumata Aphoristica, leading ever upwards to those most excellent and valuable studies which I keep here beside me and are known only as leading ever upwards to those most excellent and valuable studies which I keep here beside me and are known only as Liber Mysteriorum. Liber Mysteriorum. The scope of my enterprise is so great that, as to this time, it has never to my knowledge by any been achieved; that is why I must keep my papers in closed chests within my study, away from the eyes or tongues of vulgar sophisters. It is hard in these our dreary days to win any due or common credit for work in rare arts: so, since I can in no way rely upon the testimony of my countrymen, I join myself here with my ancestors and place my own work beside theirs. When I consider the rash, lewd, fond and most untrue fables conceived of me and my philosophical studies, I find my refuge from bleating tongues here in my library where all the ages lie silently before me. It is my The scope of my enterprise is so great that, as to this time, it has never to my knowledge by any been achieved; that is why I must keep my papers in closed chests within my study, away from the eyes or tongues of vulgar sophisters. It is hard in these our dreary days to win any due or common credit for work in rare arts: so, since I can in no way rely upon the testimony of my countrymen, I join myself here with my ancestors and place my own work beside theirs. When I consider the rash, lewd, fond and most untrue fables conceived of me and my philosophical studies, I find my refuge from bleating tongues here in my library where all the ages lie silently before me. It is my quietus est, quietus est, my pa.s.s-port (as they say) to freedom. Where is liberty to be found but in the memory and the contemplation of the past? my pa.s.s-port (as they say) to freedom. Where is liberty to be found but in the memory and the contemplation of the past?
Of course not all is known or can be known, and even of our own kingdom much is lost, yet I have by me here Historia Regum Britanniae, Historia Regum Britanniae, together with various ma.n.u.scripts concerning the past of Britain collected by Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth. I once had a book I do not know what has become of it because it was taken from me when I was clapped up in the Tower as a conjuror, but I can see it now before me. It was a short, thick old volume with two clasps, printed together with various ma.n.u.scripts concerning the past of Britain collected by Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth. I once had a book I do not know what has become of it because it was taken from me when I was clapped up in the Tower as a conjuror, but I can see it now before me. It was a short, thick old volume with two clasps, printed anno anno 1517, and it gave some account of the ancient places long buried within this island and now so many lost cities under ground. That wonderful book was stolen, as I say, but the loss is as nothing compared with the general destruction and burning and spoiling of so many notable libraries in the reign of King Henry; the whole stock and store of our past was close to utter extinction, and our antique learning was used to serve the jakes, or scour candlesticks, or rub boots. What I have kept and preserved here are the notable jewels which I have found scattered across the land, so that in this library lies something of the treasure of Britain"s antiquity, the everlasting seeds of its continual excellence, the remnants of a once incredible store of the pa.s.sing excellent work of our forefathers. To Britain"s sh.o.r.e once came the giants and, afterwards, those who escaped from the deluge of Atlantis. Their great truths must never be forsaken. 1517, and it gave some account of the ancient places long buried within this island and now so many lost cities under ground. That wonderful book was stolen, as I say, but the loss is as nothing compared with the general destruction and burning and spoiling of so many notable libraries in the reign of King Henry; the whole stock and store of our past was close to utter extinction, and our antique learning was used to serve the jakes, or scour candlesticks, or rub boots. What I have kept and preserved here are the notable jewels which I have found scattered across the land, so that in this library lies something of the treasure of Britain"s antiquity, the everlasting seeds of its continual excellence, the remnants of a once incredible store of the pa.s.sing excellent work of our forefathers. To Britain"s sh.o.r.e once came the giants and, afterwards, those who escaped from the deluge of Atlantis. Their great truths must never be forsaken.
That is why, in order to become a very excellent scholar and a learned man, it is necessary to find the path towards learning through books; otherwise it were as well to be a sophister, a quack or an empiric rather than a philosopher. There are those who say that learning effeminates a man, dims his sight, weakens his brain and engenders a thousand diseases; Aristotle himself tells us, "Nulla est magna scientia absque mixtura dementiae", "Nulla est magna scientia absque mixtura dementiae", which is as much as to say, "There is no excellent knowledge without mixture of madness". But I deny even Aristotle in this, since he who has learning holds the flower of the sun, the perfect ruby, the elixir, the magisterium. It is the true stone, the home of the glorified spirit, the virtue of the soul of the world. which is as much as to say, "There is no excellent knowledge without mixture of madness". But I deny even Aristotle in this, since he who has learning holds the flower of the sun, the perfect ruby, the elixir, the magisterium. It is the true stone, the home of the glorified spirit, the virtue of the soul of the world.
Books do not perish like humankind. Of course we commonly see them broken in the haberdasher"s shop when only a few months before they lay bound on the stationer"s stall; these are not true works, but mere trash and newfangleness for the vulgar. There are thousands of such gewgaws and toys which people have in their chambers, or which they keep upon their shelves, believing that they are precious things, when they are the mere pa.s.sing follies of the pa.s.sing time and of no more value than papers gathered up from some dunghill or raked by chance out of the kennel. True books are filled with the power of the understanding which is the inheritance of the ages: you may take up a book in time, but you read it in eternity. Look upon this text here, Ars Notoria, Ars Notoria, perfected from the Greek by Master Matthew note how every word signifies the quiddity of the substance, and how every sentence signifies its form. What learning this is (even in a latter and doting age of the world) when every line may reveal how the secret and unknown forms of things are knit up in their originals! Yet this is not for those with mere cabbalistical brains, who see nothing but mysteries and read nothing except to fall upon some revelation; out of one root comes the wild olive as well as the sweet, and these men do nothing more than gape and whisper "Micma" or "Fisis" or "Gohulim" without understanding the meaning of the sacred names. perfected from the Greek by Master Matthew note how every word signifies the quiddity of the substance, and how every sentence signifies its form. What learning this is (even in a latter and doting age of the world) when every line may reveal how the secret and unknown forms of things are knit up in their originals! Yet this is not for those with mere cabbalistical brains, who see nothing but mysteries and read nothing except to fall upon some revelation; out of one root comes the wild olive as well as the sweet, and these men do nothing more than gape and whisper "Micma" or "Fisis" or "Gohulim" without understanding the meaning of the sacred names.
But I have found the source of all that wisdom. I drink at the true fountain because here I have around me the inheritance of our island. Just as I may contemplate the portrait of Paracelsus upon my wall, and send his image through these pages so that it may be seen as a glimmering light by those who turn their eyes this way so can I distil the very essence of the books around me and impart it to the world. These volumes will be a continual silent presence not only for me, but for the posterity of many ages. It is vulgarly said and believed that there are spirits who live in private houses and who inhabit old walls or stairs of wood; yet if there is a spirit in this library, it is the spirit of past ages. There are some who mock and condemn me for living within the past, but they are far off the mark; like the navigator who charts his course by the aid of the glistening fixed stars, those who understand past ages do then master the present. Like changeable silk which turned to the sun has many colours, and turned back from the light has none, so does the present day contain all the hues and shades of times long gone which are visible only to one who looks upon them correctly. So I sit here at the great table in the middle of my library room, retired from the mult.i.tude and haunts of the world; with my books I am preserved in safety from all follies and a.s.saults, and thus I become more truly myself. I am at peace.
Yet I am not so foolish as to ignore the teaching of the great masters, Pico della Mirandola and Hermes Trismegistus among them, when they a.s.sert the following: that to be myself is to be the world, to look into myself is to look into the world, to know myself is to know the world. The human form is more powerful than the sun because it contains the sun, more beautiful than the heavens because it contains the heavens, and he who sees it truly is richer than any king, for he has the entire art and understanding of the earth. No, not my poor mortal body, not this poor shambling thing of fifty years" growth, but the true spiritual body with which I am endowed: it is this which thirsts for learning and rises into glory when I sit among my books.
I went into my garden to take some air after the sweet mustiness of my library, and had just walked down towards the edge of the Fleet where herbs grow when I heard noises much like those of a man talking in his sleep. They came from a little enclosure of baked brick framed like the walls of a house, and when I stepped in front of the open side of it I leapt back at the sight of a man in a threadbare black coat unb.u.t.toned and open before his breast. He wore a filthy foul cloth on his head, being cut for the purpose with a narrow place to put out his face. He raised his head and for a moment looked at me, without his eyes blinking.
"Oh master," he cried, "I was resting myself by the riverside here. You seem a gentleman of good worship, so pity me." I said nothing, but with my foot touched the felt hat that he had left upon the ground, moving it towards him. "I have the grievous and painful disease called the falling sickness," he continued. "I fell down on my backside, and here I have lain all the night."
"You have no disease," I replied, "that could not be cured at the whipping pillar."
"Oh dear G.o.d, sir, I feel as if I were born there since I am used so badly by all. My name is Philip Jennings, and I have had the falling sickness eight years. I can get no remedy for the same, since I have it by kind. My father had it before me." He interested me a little more now; I had once read a very learned work upon the nature of diseases which we inherit. "Give me a penny for G.o.d"s sake, sir, to keep me a true man."
"Surely you are not brought to so low a sail," I replied, stepping back at the stench of him, "that you cannot steer your way to a charitable church door?"
"Oh, I know all the churches. I know St Stephen in Coleman Street, St Martin"s at Ludgate, St Leonard"s in Foster Lane, but all turn me away with no more than a flea in my ear."
"And no doubt they made threats to burn you through the ear also? Is that not their way?"
"Well you know, sir, these priests have heads higher than their hats. The greatest clerks are not the wisest men."
I did not a.s.sent to this. "You are not a foolish man," I said, "despite your apparel. How have you lived in this sad world?"
"I go solitary walking, with no man to comfort me, but only a dog." There was indeed a bundle of skin and bones nestling close up to him, which stirred now that he touched it. "We eat what we can. It is forbidden to kill kites and ravens in this city because they devour the filthiness of the streets, so they are our companions."
I felt a little pity for him then. "I can give you some rye brown bread "
"Better porridge than no repast, as they say. Better an old bone than an empty plate."
"You give great words," I replied, laughing. "There may also be a hot pie for you and your dog."
"Then I will leave you afterwards. I will bing Romeville."
"What was that?"
"It is the canting speech, sir. I said that I will leave London."
These strange words interested me. "Cant me some more, good canter."
"I couched a hogshead in a skipper this darkmans."
"Which signifies?"
"I lay me down to sleep in this shed last night. Now big me a waste to the highpad, the ruffmans is by."
"And that?" These words were like some ancient tongue of the country, unknown to me.
"It is as much as to say, well, let me go past to the highway. The woods are at hand."
"I do not understand these words, or the reasoning for them. Tell me something of their age, and of their origin."
"I cannot say how old they are, or from where they came, but my father taught them to me, and his father did likewise, stretching far back. I give you a demonstration. Look upon this." He pointed to his nose. "A smelling cheat." And then to his mouth. "A gan." And then to his eyes. "Glaziers." Then he lifted up his hands. "Fambles."
"Wait," I said, "wait till I fetch food for you." I hurried back into the kitchen, where the servant-girl was already preparing the meal, and demanded from her plentiful bread and meat. I piled this upon a plate, but I also brought into the garden a piece of chalk and slate so that I might write down the words he spoke.
"Peck," he said, holding up a lump of the meat I gave him. "Pannam," thus signifying the bread. "Bene for my bufe. Good for my dog." They both fell upon their food now, but when they had eaten heartily he wiped his mouth upon his filthy sleeve and continued. "The lightmans is the day and darkmans is the night. Solomon is an altar and patrico a priest, while autem is canting for church." All these I wrote down as he spoke. "Glimmer is fire. It was bitter cold last night, sir, and I wished to put my prat in ken or libbege with new duds."
"Which is to say?"
"I wished to put my b.u.t.tocks in a house or bed with new clothes upon me." He raised himself now a little, and patted his dog. "I will not filch your bung," said he, "because you have fed us both. But do you have some lour? Can you translate this for me?"
"Money?"
"Which is so! Money! I need money!"
I went back into the house, and found some pennies left in the chimney corner; on returning to him I gave them with a right good will, for had he not opened to me a new language and thus a new world? "There"s for you," I said. "And what is the name of your dog?"
"d.i.c.kins, sir. He is very much like the Devil."
He left me soon after, but not before I walked with him to the bank of the Fleet. "There is a theory," I said, "that parallels, because they maintain diverse lines, can never join. Do you think it is true?"
"I understand none of that, sir. But I do know that you should not place a patch of fustian in a damask coat. I am not of your kind, and I must leave you." At that he paused; taking some papers of close writing from the pocket of his ancient coat, he presented them to me with a smile. "I have been wonderful troublesome to you, sir, and am without doubt much misliked "
"No, no. It is not so."
"But read these words I leave with you." He said no more but went on his way with his dog, going by the side of the river and singing the old hanging tune, "Fortune my foe, why dost thou frown on me?" I watched him until he was quite out of sight, and then with a sigh turned back to the house and went up again into my library.
Shall I tell you of my dreams? In my first dream I had a vision and show of many books, newly printed and of very strange argument; among them was one great volume, thick and in large quarto, which had on its first page my house as its t.i.tle in great letters. In my second dream I was walking between Aldgate and the posterns on Tower Hill when a great tempest of mighty wind followed me, at which I said out loud to several great personages around me, "I must ride to Clerkenwell; someone is writing upon a theme concerning me and my books." In my third dream I knew that I was dead, and after my bowels were taken out I talked with diverse people of a future time. In my fourth dream I dreamed that my wife, Mistress Katherine Dee, had an abortion; I helped to find the dead birth within, one hour after I had caused her to be given myrrh in warmed wine, and the dead thing was a volume with a black cover which stuck to my fingers. In my fifth dream I found myself within an excellent little library room, which seemed in times past to have been the chamber of some student skilful in the holy stone; a name was in various places noted in letters of gold and silver, "Petrus Baccalaureus Londoniensis", and among other manifold things written very fairly in this study were hieroglyphical notes on the houses, streets and churches of our city. Certain verses were inscribed over the door, viz.
Immortale Decus par gloriaque illi debentur Cujus ab ingenio est discolor hic paries. Cujus ab ingenio est discolor hic paries.
I look down at myself, and find myself with letters and words all upon me, and I know that I have been turned into a book...
There was a cry somewhere and I awoke. I must have poured out my eyes in this place, for I had closed them in a state between slumbering and waking without thinking to steal a nap. But I returned to myself in a moment. It was eleven before noon, and I had been called to dinner by Mrs Dee. I was hungry for my meat and was brisk in coming down the stairs into the hall where, to my delight, the table was already covered. I had long since dismissed any sullen drabs out of the kitchen, and now I have only good and clean servants to aid my wife. She sat opposite to me at the long table, and bowed her head meekly enough as I prayed for grace. Then I began to carve the veal and with great silence and gravity we began to eat our boiled meats, our conies, our pies and our tarts. There are but two courses with us for, as I have told Katherine Dee, too much bread and meat induce melancholy; hares are thought particularly to cause it, so they are banished from our table. Melancholy is cold and dry, and so melancholy men must refrain from fried meat or meat which has too much salt; they must also eat boiled meat rather than roasted. For the same reasons I abstain from the drinking of hot wines and, to preserve myself from distempered heaviness, I abjure cow milk, almond milk and the yolks of eggs. Katherine Dee knows the disposition of her husband and has full keeping of the foodstuffs: I give her money for the month and, having been trained by me in the secret virtues and seeds of all foods, she goes to the market with her maid and buys only good b.u.t.ter, cheese, capons, hogs and bacon.
"Did you see the maypole set up in Cow Lane?" she asked me as I drank my white wine opposite to her.
"I came back another way." I had already determined to keep silent concerning the canting outcast in the garden, because I knew that it would disturb her.
"It is for the wedding. Did you know? The daughter of Grosseteste, the merchant, is to be married today."
"So what of it?"
My wife was well tucked up in a russet petticoat, with a bare hem and no fringe, as I like her to be dressed with plainness; yet she had a red lace ap.r.o.n upon her, and she plucked at it with her hand as she spoke to me. "Nothing, sir. Nothing at all. Some say she is fair, but I have always found her ill dressed. Who would have guessed it with the money in that quarter? No doubt many a man will envy her husband." She continued plucking at her ap.r.o.n. "And the maypole is very sumptuous, Doctor Dee. I have seen nothing like. Shall we go to see it? If you will?"
"Wife, can we go to the dinner which is set before us? Will you always be chattering and never quiet?"
"As it will please you, sir." She was silent for a while as we set upon our meat. "Husband," she said soon afterwards, "I pray you pull a piece of that capon. You eat nothing. You have not yet even tasted of these cabbages."
I put my finger into the bowl and licked it. "I cannot taste of them. They are so much peppered and salted." I saw that I had put her in an ill humour, and it pleased me to provoke her a little. "And what meat is this? It is the cut I love best, but it is marred. As Londoners say, G.o.d sends us the meat and the Devil cooks it." I had scored a notable hit. "It is stuffed with garlic to hide the rottenness: if I touch it now, I will smell for three days after. You learn nothing. It is a great shame."
"If it pleases you to speak so, Doctor Dee, then I can say nothing. But I have tried to do everything to the best."
"Well, well, there has been talk enough. Now eat. You may talk after dinner."
It is an excellent room to sit in for meat, having great oaken chests and chairs curiously carved in the old style; the walls are hung with painted cloths where several histories, as well as herbs and beasts, are stained. Here are the sorrows of Job, the opening of the seventh seal, and the building of Jerusalem, all of these a perpetual allegory by which we train our souls even as we eat upon our joint-stools. There is a fine chair in one corner, trimmed with crimson velvet and embroidered with gold, yet it is seldom used except for high company. When I was a boy we lay upon straw pallets with a log beneath as a bolster but now we lay our heads upon pillows, and we dine off pewter where once clay was fine enough. We have Turkey work, bra.s.s, soft linen, cupboards garnished with plate, and the chambers of our houses are so decorated with inlaid tables and carefully worked gla.s.s that they dazzle the eye on first entering. Well, well, the world turns; but there must also be a light within us to reflect the meaning of such changes.
I had been eating and thinking all the while, when my wife suddenly checked me with a laugh. "What, sir, you love mustard so? It will make you a red nose and crimson face, without the help of any wine. But lord, how you drink it!"
I stared at her for a moment, yet I could not break her look of defiance. "If the wine is bad, mistress, then naturally it inflames the pa.s.sion."
"The fault is not in the wine but in him who drinks it." I said nothing, and I believe she repented. "I will bring you cake-bread then, sir, which will draw the liquor like a sponge."
When dinner was almost at an end, and these last dishes had been removed from the table, I washed my fingers in the bowl and then called for my book.
"What book?" said Katherine Dee pertly enough.
"Where I read yesterday after dinner. Did you not see it? Are you purblind?"
"Oh, do you mean your book of old fables which you enjoy by the fireside?"
"Not fables, madam. The acts of the ancient kings of England."
"I put it away," she replied. "Away from the fumes of the meat you find so bad."
She had a sharp tongue upon her still. "Go to, gossip. Fetch me the book." She did not budge from her seat. "Have I not power to command in my own house?"
"As you will."
"Well said. Then bring me my book."
With a laugh she rose and went over to a chest, whereupon she opened it and with a flourish presented me with Gesta Regum Britanniae; Gesta Regum Britanniae; then she sat down beside me on a close-stool to watch me read. But I was not to be granted peace. "Oh," she said after a few moments. "A message came. Your father is still ill with fits of the ague." then she sat down beside me on a close-stool to watch me read. But I was not to be granted peace. "Oh," she said after a few moments. "A message came. Your father is still ill with fits of the ague."
"It is an evil sickness," I replied as I continued with my reading.
A few more moments pa.s.sed. "So tell me, husband. Shall we visit the maypole? It is good to walk after meat."
"Enough!" I put down my book and, going into the pa.s.sage, called for a chamber-pot to relieve myself. I retired into the little room next to the hall and, having p.i.s.sed mightily, I intended to throw it forth at the window (for it had begun to rain) when I caught the savour of my urine in my nostrils; it had a high odour to it, like that of fresh cinnamon, and put me in mind at once of the wine I had taken the night before. But there was more virtue in it now, having been dissolved within me and then congealed again; it had become a humid exhalation from which the volatile substance had been removed and, if all moisture were finally to leave it, then at last it would become a stone. If it were to become a dry or powdery substance, in form a mineral, could it be used to fructify the land as the urine of man is said to do and in its sublime state generate a thousandfold? There was something here worthy of closer study, and so I took my pot up to my laboratory where I determined upon some further experiments of sublimation and fixation.
I am not some poor alchemist, new set up, with scarcely enough money to buy beechen coals for my furnace; over these years I have found or purchased all my instruments and substances, so that I have no need to rake some dunghill for a few dirty specimens. But neither have I anything to do with the cthonic magic of the past which secreted itself in caves and woods: those were times of witches and hags, dwarfs and satyrs, conjurors and changelings, invoking the incubus, the spoor, the h.e.l.l-wain, Boneless and other such bugs of the night and the mist. Into what blind and gross errors in old time we were led, thinking every merry word a very witchcraft and every old wife"s tale a truth, viz. that the touch of an ashen bough causes giddiness in a viper"s head, and that a bat lightly struck with the leaf of an elm tree loses his remembrance. But these are trifling matters of which I do not complain. Indeed there was a certain truth to them if they had, as they say, been viewed in the light light being the bright path of life, by which the virtues of the sun and stars are generated within the world.
But if I am no moth-eaten alchemist, neither am I some newfangled astronomer who feigns eccentrics and epicycles and suchlike in order to save the phenomena, when he knows full well that there are no such engines within the orbs. Each of them follows the newest way, which is not ever the nearest way: some going over the stile when the gate is open, and others keeping the beaten path when they may cross better by the fields. They are like eager wolves that bark at the moon when they cannot reach it even though, if they did but know it, the very same moon, and stars, and all the firmament, lie within their own selves.
Shall we then look upon the heavens as a wolf, or an ox, or an a.s.s does? No, it cannot be. Yet to find or receive some inkling, glimpse or beam of what are the radical truths, it is necessary to unite astronomy with astrology, yes, even with alchemy which is known as astronomia inferior; astronomia inferior; by so doing we may in the method of Pythagoras restore the ternary of these arts to unity or One. Such is the infinite desire of knowledge and, as I have proved for myself, such is the incredible power of man"s search and capacity: it is the learning of that which lives for ever and not of that which pa.s.ses through time. No doubt these studies are dispraised by those who understand them not, but there must come an age when all true lovers of wisdom turn their hands and bend their minds to these doctrines. by so doing we may in the method of Pythagoras restore the ternary of these arts to unity or One. Such is the infinite desire of knowledge and, as I have proved for myself, such is the incredible power of man"s search and capacity: it is the learning of that which lives for ever and not of that which pa.s.ses through time. No doubt these studies are dispraised by those who understand them not, but there must come an age when all true lovers of wisdom turn their hands and bend their minds to these doctrines.
Here is the eternal connection. In our astronomy we view the seven planets in their eternal order, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury and the moon, while in our experiments we proceed through the seven alchemical doors, calcination, fixation, solution, distillation, sublimation, separation and projection. Then in astrology we compound the two, by scrutinizing the secret influences of the planets and the stars while at the same time loosening the chains of each element in this elemental world. The stars do live and, through the spiritus mundi, spiritus mundi, influence us; there is sympathy or disharmony between all living things, and to gain mastery over this point is to exercise control over the entire world. There is nothing done in the lower world which is not controlled by the powers above, nothing moved or changed in the sublunary sphere except with the aid of the incorruptible heavens whose emblems and messengers are the planets and stars. Thus when the moon lies between the twenty-eighth degree of Taurus and the eleventh of Gemini, then is the time to search for the hidden seeds of life. I have demonstrated before this time that when Saturn and the moon are three score degrees of the zodiac apart, then it is good to gather those seeds and bury them deep within the warm earth. The natural beams of the lighted stars are to be found at work equally in both spheres, in things visible and invisible, at all times and in every horizon a.s.signed. So may these beams be distilled and, like the morning dew, refresh and excite new life. influence us; there is sympathy or disharmony between all living things, and to gain mastery over this point is to exercise control over the entire world. There is nothing done in the lower world which is not controlled by the powers above, nothing moved or changed in the sublunary sphere except with the aid of the incorruptible heavens whose emblems and messengers are the planets and stars. Thus when the moon lies between the twenty-eighth degree of Taurus and the eleventh of Gemini, then is the time to search for the hidden seeds of life. I have demonstrated before this time that when Saturn and the moon are three score degrees of the zodiac apart, then it is good to gather those seeds and bury them deep within the warm earth. The natural beams of the lighted stars are to be found at work equally in both spheres, in things visible and invisible, at all times and in every horizon a.s.signed. So may these beams be distilled and, like the morning dew, refresh and excite new life.
What is above also lies below; what is below is also above. And here we approach upon our knees another great secret: the sun, gold, and the heart of man are a.n.a.logous. If I control the light and the heart"s pa.s.sions, then I can begin to discover or refine the material substance of gold. If I wish to make that metal, therefore, I must make my own self pure and become (as it were) an agent of the light which dwells in all things. Yet if I can create the most precious and sacred substance from the mere dross of the world, then in similar manner I must proclaim how within the mortal world of decay and within our own selves there is that which is constant, unchangeable and incorruptible.
I have done so many rare and precious experiments upon this truth that I cannot reckon up all of them now. So many strange speculations and incredible practices have been made manifest to me that to speak of the objects created from smoke or vapour, of the secret balances of sulphur and mercury, of the consummation of the chrysolite and beryl, would be a task fit only for the great Hermes Trismegistus himself. I will say only this. While mortal sense rules within us, so gross is our comprehension and dull our sight that it is necessary to curb our outward faculties and look towards the inward world; therewithall you will see yourself as a being made of light. The true man is astral man, containing within him not the star-demon (as some commentators say) but the material of divinity itself. If in the event you do not therefore make yourself equal to G.o.d, you cannot know G.o.d like is intelligible only to like. Man was once, and will again, be G.o.d. And so I say once more: at death material and corruptible things will become invisible and, just as the dross of the world can in the chemical wedding be turned to gold, so can we return to light. Yet there is a greater mystery than all; for what if it were possible, before death ever came, to a.s.sume that light and mingle with the G.o.dhead? Why, then I might arise, climb, ascend and mount up to behold in the gla.s.s of Creation the form of forms, the exemplar number of all things numerable. Then I might foresee great particular events long before their coming, or view the pa.s.sages of antiquity as if standing there in bodily shape from everlasting to everlasting. But more than this is there, and still more: why, I might use that light to quicken life itself within my own hands. I have beside me a gla.s.s vessel prepared and waiting for my little man, but of this no more can be said or written. Oh comfortable allurement, oh ravishing persuasion, to deal with a science whose subject is so ancient, so pure, so excellent, so surmounting all creatures in their distinct parts, properties, natures and virtues, so implicate with order and absolute number!
Enough. I will use no tedious discourses or colour of rhetoric which, though they are deemed courtly by the lowly sort, are by no means necessary. The purest emerald shines brightest when it has no oil. It has grown twilight gloomy, and a few moments ago there was a clap of thunder with some lightning. I take up the pages which the canting beggar gave to me in the garden, but can see only a certain kind of curious writing in the English tongue. There are the words "house" and "father", all closely inscribed, but in the gathering darkness I can read nothing more. So I light my candle and watch its fire. As the darkness is lifted the wax is consumed: the substance does not die, but is transformed into flame. This is the final lesson. By means of that fire the material form of the candle before me rises into its spiritual being. It has become a light and a shining within this poor shambling room, my library.
THREE.
I.
REMEMBER VERY little about my childhood. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I had one at all. Even if I was lying on my deathbed, I doubt that I would recall anything more distinctly; it would be as if I had come into being, and pa.s.sed away, within one night. Yet often, when I close my eyes, I see certain streets or buildings which I must have visited once. Then again, in my dreams, I recognize the faces of people who are talking to me. Oh yes, I do remember something. I remember a violet colour. I remember the dust in the air, when a ray of sun came through the gla.s.s. "I suppose," I said, "it must have been a window." I had never talked about myself in this way before; it was as if the silence of the old house disturbed me, or provoked me, and I listened to my voice as it fell back into the darkness and was covered by it.
"I wonder why it is that you remember so little." Daniel Moore and I were sitting in the ground-floor room, a few days after I had seen him in Charlotte Street; it was a fine summer evening, and the white walls seemed to be trembling in the light.
"I was probably a very dull child."
"No. It"s something more than that. You have such little curiosity about yourself. Or about your life. It"s as if you were trying to ignore it."