d such like arts and instruments? What so
intricate and pleasing withal, as to peruse and practise Heron
Alexandrinus's works, _de spiritalibus, de machinis bellicis, de machina se
movente_, Jordani Nemorarii _de ponderibus proposit. 13_, that pleasant
tract of Machometes Bragdedinus _de superficierum divisionibus_,
Apollonius's Conics, or Commandinus's labours in that kind, _de centro
gravitatis_, with many such geometrical theorems and problems? Those rare
instruments and mechanical inventions of Jac. Bessonus, and Cardan to this
purpose, with many such experiments intimated long since by Roger Bacon, in
his tract _de [3364]Secretis artis et naturae_, as to make a chariot to
move _sine animali_, diving boats, to walk on the water by art, and to fly
in the air, to make several cranes and pulleys, _quibus homo trahat ad se
mille homines_, lift up and remove great weights, mills to move themselves,
Archita's dove, Albertus's brazen head, and such thaumaturgical works. But
especially to do strange miracles by glasses, of which Proclus and Bacon
writ of old, burning glasses, multiplying glasses, perspectives, _ut unus
homo appareat exercitus_, to see afar off, to represent solid bodies by
cylinders and concaves, to walk in the air, _ut veraciter videant_, (saith
Bacon) _aurum et argentum et quicquid aliud volunt, et quum veniant ad
locum visionis, nihil inveniant_, which glasses are much perfected of late
by Baptista Porta and Galileo, and much more is promised by Maginus and
Midorgius, to be performed in this kind. _Otocousticons_ some speak of, to
intend hearing, as the other do sight; Marcellus Vrencken, a Hollander, in
his epistle to Burgravius, makes mention of a friend of his that is about
an instrument, _quo videbit quae in altero horizonte sint_. But our
alchemists, methinks, and Rosicrucians afford most rarities, and are fuller
of experiments: they can make gold, separate and alter metals, extract
oils, salts, lees, and do more strange works than Geber, Lullius, Bacon, or
any of those ancients. Crollius hath made after his master Paracelsus,
_aurum fulminans_, or _aurum volatile_, which shall imitate thunder and
lightning, and crack louder than any gunpowder; Cornelius Drible a
perpetual motion, inextinguishable lights, _linum non ardens_, with many
such feats; see his book _de natura elementorum_, besides hail, wind, snow,
thunder, lightning, &c., those strange fireworks, devilish petards, and
such like warlike mach