s, provided they are not believed: but his Holiness
finding Porta's were, warned him that magical sciences were great
hindrances to the study of the Bible, and paid him the compliment to
forbid his prophesying. Porta's genius was now limited to astonish, and
sometimes to terrify, the more ingenious part of _I Secreti_. On
entering his cabinet, some phantom of an attendant was sure to be
hovering in the air, moving as he who entered moved; or he observed in
some mirror that his face was twisted on the wrong side of his
shoulders, and did not quite think that all was right when he clapped
his hand on it; or passing through a darkened apartment a magical
landscape burst on him, with human beings in motion, the boughs of trees
bending, and the very clouds passing over the sun; or sometimes
banquets, battles, and hunting-parties were in the same apartment. "All
these spectacles my friends have witnessed!" exclaims the self-delighted
Baptista Porta. When his friends drank wine out of the same cup which he
had used, they were mortified with wonder; for he drank wine, and they
only water! or on a summer's day, when all complained of the sirocco, he
would freeze his guests with cold air in the room; or, on a sudden, let
off a flying dragon to sail along with a cracker in its tail, and a cat
tied on his back; shrill was the sound, and awful was the concussion; so
that it required strong nerves, in an age of apparitions and devils, to
meet this great philosopher when in his best humour. Albertus Magnus
entertained the Earl of Holland, as that earl passed through Cologne, in
a severe winter, with a warm summer scene, luxuriant in fruits and
flowers. The fact is related by Trithemius--and this magical scene
connected with his vocal head, and his books _De Secretis Mulierum_, and
_De Mirabilibus_, confirmed the accusations they raised against the
great Albert for being a magician. His apologist, Theophilus Raynaud,
is driven so hard to defend Albertus, that he at once asserts the winter
changed to summer and the speaking head to be two infamous flams! He
will not believe these authenticated facts, although he credits a
miracle which proves the sanctity of Albertus,--after three centuries,
the body of Albert the Great remained as sweet as ever!

"Whether such enchauntments," as old Mandeville cautiously observeth,
two centuries preceding the days of Porta, were "by craft or by
nygromancye, I wot nere." But that they were not unknown to