The life of Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, doctor and knight, commonly known as a magician / Henry Morley.

  • Morley, Henry, 1822-1894.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life of Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, doctor and knight, commonly known as a magician / Henry Morley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a lather full account of this method of study was at this time among the number of Agrippa’s writings. From his brief chapter on the Art of Lully, the satirist passes, in the tenth chapter of his Vanity of Sciences, to the Mnemonic Art1—technical memory. This art, when Simonides or somebody else offered it to Themistocles, he lefused, saying he had more need of forgetfulness than memory ; for, said he, I remember what I would not, but I cannot forget what I would. After all, a great memory is but a childish thing to display, for it is shame and dis- grace to make a show of great reading after the manner of those who parade all their wares outside their doors, and have an empty house within. Of Mathematical Sciences2, which treat of figure, num- ber, and motion (though there was never any figure yet found perfectly round), the first is Arithmetic3, mother of all the rest, and only valued among merchants for the mean benefit of keeping their accounts. Geomancy4 is a vain blanch of arithmetic, related to astrology. u I myself,” Agrippa says, u have written a Geomancy” [a lost work, to which we have had previous allusions], u far different from the rest, though not less superstitious and fallacious, or, if you will, I may say equally lying.” Arithmetical science has another offspring in the Art of Diciim5 whereof Chance is the father. This dicing is now-a-days 1 Be Incert. el Van. Sci. et Art. Cap. x. pp. 44, 45. 2 Cap. xi. pp. 45, 46. 3 Cap. xii. p. 46. ‘ Cap. xiii. p. 46. 5 Cap. xiv. p. 47. VOL. II. M