De Occulta Philosophia libri III. By Henry Cornelius Agrippa. Lyons,
1550, 8vo.
De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum. By the same. Cologne, 1531,
8vo.
The first editions of these works were of 1530, as well as I can make out;
but the first was in progress in 1510.[46] In the second work Agrippa
repents of having wasted time on the magic of the first; but all those who
actually deal with demons are destined to eternal fire with Jamnes and
Mambres and Simon Magus. This means, as is the fact, that his occult
philosophy did not actually enter upon _black_ magic, but confined itself
to the power of the stars, of numbers, etc. The fourth book, which appeared
after the death of Agrippa, and really concerns dealing with evil spirits,
is undoubtedly spurious. It is very difficult to make out what Agrippa
really believed on the subject. I have introduced his books as the most
marked specimens of treatises on magic, a paradox of our day, though not
far from orthodoxy in his; and here I should have ended my notice, if I had
not casually found something more interesting to the reader of our day.
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