he bullet as is customary, to put it, on the
contrary, at the mouth of the barrel. That being done, when they fire,
if the end of the pistol is raised, the ball, which is not displaced,
will produce the usual effect; but if, on the contrary, the pistol is
lowered, so that the ball runs into the barrel and joins the wadding,
it will fall on the ground from the board without having penetrated
it. It seems to me that something like this may be found in the
"Natural Experiments" of Redi, which I have not at hand just now. But
on this subject, you can consult Jean Baptista, Porta, and others. We
must not, however, place amongst the effects of this kind of magic,
what a friend jokingly observed to me in a very polite letter which he
wrote to me two months ago:--A noisy exhalation having ignited in a
house, and not having been perceived by him who was in the spot
adjoining, nor in any other place, he writes me word that those who,
according to the vulgar prejudice, persisted in believing that these
kinds of fire came from the sky and the clouds, were necessarily
forced to attribute this effect to real magic. I shall again add, on
the subject of electrical phenomena, that those who think to explain
them by means of two electrical fluids, the one hidden in bodies, and
the other circulating around them, would perhaps say something less
strange and surprising, if they ascribed them to magic. I have
endeavored, in the last letter which is joined to that I wrote upon
the subject of exhalations, to give some explanation of these wonders;
and I have done so, at least, without being obliged to invent from my
own head, and without any foundation, to universal electrical matters
which circulate within bodies and without them. Certainly, the ancient
philosophers, who reasoned so much on the magnet, would have spared
themselves a great deal of trouble, if they had believed it possible
to attribute its admirable properties to a magnetic spirit which
proceeded from it. But the pleasure I should find in arguing with
them, might perhaps engage me in other matters; for which reason I now
end my letter.

Footnotes:

[672] The author here alludes to the hypogryphe, a winged horse,
invented by Ariosto, that carried the Paladins through the air.

[673] Magicus Vanitates.

[674] Plin. lib. xxx. c. 1.

[675]
"Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas,
Nocturnos lemures, portentaque Thessala rides?"
HORAT. lib. ii. Ep. 2