opinion belike Socrates took from Pythagoras, and he from Trismegistus, he
from Zoroastes, first God, second idea, 3. Intelligences, 4. Arch-Angels,
5. Angels, 6. Devils, 7. Heroes, 8. Principalities, 9. Princes: of which
some were absolutely good, as gods, some bad, some indifferent _inter deos
et homines_, as heroes and daemons, which ruled men, and were called genii,
or as [1171]Proclus and Jamblichus will, the middle betwixt God and men.
Principalities and princes, which commanded and swayed kings and countries;
and had several places in the spheres perhaps, for as every sphere is
higher, so hath it more excellent inhabitants: which belike is that
Galilaeus a Galileo and Kepler aims at in his nuncio Syderio, when he will
have [1172]Saturnine and Jovial inhabitants: and which Tycho Brahe doth in
some sort touch or insinuate in one of his epistles: but these things
[1173]Zanchius justly explodes, _cap. 3. lib. 4._ P. Martyr, _in 4. Sam.
28._

So that according to these men the number of ethereal spirits must needs be
infinite: for if that be true that some of our mathematicians say: if a
stone could fall from the starry heaven, or eighth sphere, and should pass
every hour an hundred miles, it would be 65 years, or more, before it would
come to ground, by reason of the great distance of heaven from earth, which
contains as some say 170 millions 800 miles, besides those other heavens,
whether they be crystalline or watery which Maginus adds, which
peradventure holds as much more, how many such spirits may it contain? And
yet for all this [1174]Thomas Albertus, and most hold that there be far
more angels than devils.

_Sublunary devils, and their kinds._] But be they more or less, _Quod supra
nos nihil ad nos_ (what is beyond our comprehension does not concern us).
Howsoever as Martianus foolishly supposeth, _Aetherii Daemones non curant
res humanas_, they care not for us, do not attend our actions, or look for
us, those ethereal spirits have other worlds to reign in belike or business
to follow. We are only now to speak in brief of these sublunary spirits or
devils: for the rest, our divines determine that the devil had no power
over stars, or heavens; [1175]_Carminibus coelo possunt deducere lunam_,
&C., (by their charms (verses) they can seduce the moon from the heavens).
Those are poetical fictions, and that they can [1176]_sistere aquam
fluviis, et vertere sidera retro_, &c., (stop rivers and turn the stars
backwa