Chapter XVII. How by Enmity and Friendship the Virtues of Things Are to be Tried and Found Out

The Philosophy of Natural Magic, by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, L. W. de Laurence ed. [1913], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER XVII.

How by Enmity and Friendship the Virtues of Things Are to be Tried and Found Out.

In the next place it is requisite that we consider that all things have a friendliness and enmity amongst themselves, and every thing hath something that it fears and dreads, that is an enemy and destructive to it; and, on the contrary, something that it rejoiceth and delighteth in and is strengthened by. So in the Elements, Fire is an enemy to Water, and Air to Earth, but yet they agree amongst themselves. And, again, in Celestial bodies, Mercury, Jupiter, the Sun and Moon are friends to Saturn; Mars and Venus enemies to him. All the planets besides Mars are friends to Jupiter, also all besides Venus hate Mars; Jupiter and Venus love the Sun, Mars, Mercury and the Moon are enemies to him. All besides Saturn love Venus. Jupiter, Venus and Saturn are friends to Mercury; the Sun, Moon and Mars his enemies. Jupiter, Venus and Saturn are friends to the Moon; Mars and Mercury her enemies. There is another kind of enmity amongst the stars, viz., when they have opposite houses, as Saturn to the Sun and Moon, Jupiter to Mercury, and Mars to Venus. And their enmity is stronger whose exaltations are opposite, as of Saturn and the Sun, of Jupiter and Mars, and of Venus and Mercury. But their friendship is the strongest who agree in nature, quality, substance and power, as Mars with the Sun, as Venus with the Moon, and as Jupiter with Venus; as also their friendship whose exaltation is in the

p. 79

house of another, as that of Saturn with Venus, of Jupiter with the Moon, of Mars with Saturn, of the Sun with Mars, of Venus with Jupiter, and of the Moon with Venus. And of what sort the friendships and enmities of the superiors be, such are the inclinations of things subjected to them in those inferior. These dispositions, therefore, of friendship and enmity are nothing else but certain inclinations of things of the one to another, desiring such-and-such a thing if it be absent, and to move towards it unless it be hindered; and to acquiesce in it when it is obtained, shunning the contrary and dreading the approach of it, and not resting in or being contented with it. Heraclitus, ^* therefore, being guided by this opinion, professed that all things were made by enmity and friendship.

Now the inclinations of Friendship are such in all Vegetables and Minerals, as is that attractive virtue or inclination which the loadstone hath upon iron, and the emerald upon riches and favor, the jasper upon the birth of any thing, and the stone achates upon eloquence. In like manner there is a kind of bituminous clay that draws fire, and leaps into it, wheresoever it sees it. Even so doth the root of the herb aproxis draw fire from afar off. Also the same inclination there is betwixt the male palm-tree and female; whereof, when the bough of one shall touch the bough of the other, they fold themselves into mutual embraces; neither doth the female palm-tree bring forth fruit without the male. And the almond tree, when she is alone is less fruitful. The vines

p. 80

love the elm, and the olive-tree and myrtle love one the other; also the olive-tree and fig-tree.

Now, in Birds and Animals, there is amity betwixt the blackbird and thrush, betwixt the crow and heron, betwixt peacocks and pigeons, turtles and parrots. When Sappho writes to Phaon:

Again, the whale and the little fish, his guide, are friendly. Neither is this amity in Animals amongst themselves, but also with other things, as with Metals, Stones and Vegetables: So the cat delights in the herb catnip and rubbeth herself upon it, and there be mares in Cappadocia that expose themselves to the blast of the wind. So frog, toads, snakes, and all manner of creeping poisonous things, delight in the plant called pas-flower, of whom, as the physicians say, if any one eat he shall die with laughing. The tortoise, also, when he is hunted by the adder, eats origanum, and is thereby strengthened; and the stork, when he hath eat snakes, seeks for a remedy in origanum; and the weasel, when he goes to fight with the basilisk, eats rue—whence we come to know that origanum and rue are effectual against poison. So in some Animals there is an imbred skill and medicinal art; for when the toad is wounded with a bite or poison of another animal, he is wont to go to rue or sage and rub the place wounded, and so escape the danger of the poison. So men have learned many excellent remedies of diseases and virtues of things, from brutes; so swallows have shewed us that sallendine is very medicinable for the sight, with which they cure the eyes of their young; and the pyet, when she is sick puts a bay-leaf into her nest, and is recovered. In like manner, cranes, jackdaws, partridges, and black-birds purge their nauseous stomachs with the same, with which also crows allay the

p. 81

poison of the chameleon; and the lion, if he be feverish, is recovered by eating of an ape. The lapwing, being surfeited with eating of grapes, cures himself with southernwood; so the harts have taught us that the herb ditany is very good to draw out darts; for they, being wounded with an arrow, cast it out by eating of this herb; the same do goats in Candy. So hinds, a little before they bring forth, purge themselves with a certain herb called mountain osier. Also they that are hurt with spiders seek a remedy by eating of crabs. Swine also being hurt by snakes cure themselves by eating of them; and cows, when they perceive they are poisoned with a kind of French poison, seek for cure in the oak. Elephants, when they have swallowed a chameleon, help themselves with the wild olive. Bears, being hurt with mandrakes, escape the danger by eating of ants. Geese, ducks, and such like watery fowls, cure themselves with the herb called wall-sage. Pigeons, turtles, and hens, with the herb called pellitory of the wall. Cranes, with bulrushes. Leopards cure themselves, being hurt, with the herb called wolf's-bane; boars, with ivy; hinds, with the herb called cinnara.

Footnotes

79:* Sometimes given as Heracleitus, a Greek philosopher who lived about 500 B. C. He was known as the "weeping philosopher," so impressed was he by the weaknesses of mankind. Only fragments of his philosophical work, "Peri Physeos" (On Nature) remain. These fragments go to show that Heraclitus held "fire to be the first principle of all phenomena, and the original substance out of which they have all been evolved." Agrippa, In the above, throws further light on his philosophy. The fragments of the teachings of Heraclitus were collected, at Berlin, in 1805, while Agrippa wrote some three hundred years earlier.