al
Copulation, or that Witches are turned into Cats, Dogs, raise
Tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also
is handled, the Existence of Angels and Spirits, the truth of
Apparitions, the Nature of Astral and Sydereal Spirits, the force of
Charms and Philters; with other abstruse matters. By John Webster,
Practitioner in Physic. Falsae etenim opiniones Hominum praeoccupantes,
non solum surdos, sed et caecos faciunt, ita ut videre nequeant, quae
aliis perspicua apparent. Galen, lib. 8. de Comp. Med. London, Printed
by J.M. and are to be sold by the Booksellers in London. 1677," (fol.)
In this memorable book he exhausts the subject, as far as it is
possible to do so, by powerful ridicule, cogent arguments, and the
most various and well applied learning, leaving to Hutchinson, and
others who have since followed in his track, little further necessary
than to reproduce his facts and reasonings in a more popular, it can
scarcely be said, in a more effective, form.[29] Those who love
literary parallels may compare Webster, as he appears in this his
last and most characteristic performance, with two famous medical
contemporaries, Sir Thomas Browne, and Thomas Bartholinus the Dane,
whom he strongly resembled in the character of his mind, in the
complexion and variety of his studies, in grave simplicity, in
exactness of observation, in general philosophical incredulity with
some startling reserves, in elaborate and massive ratiocination, and
in the enthusiasm, subdued but not extinguished, which gives zest to
his speculations and poignancy and colouring to his style. He who
seeks to measure great men in their strength and in their weakness,
and what operation of literary analysis is more instructive or
delightful, will find ample employment for collation and comparison
in this extraordinary book, in which, keen as is the penetration
displayed on almost every subject of imposition and delusion, he
appears still to cling, with the obstinacy of a veteran, to some of
the darling Dalilahs of his youth, "to the admirable and
soul-ravishing knowledge of the three great Hypostatical principles of
nature, salt, sulphur, and mercury," and, _proh pudor!_ to alchemy and
astrology--and those seraphic doctors and professors, Crollius,
Libavius, and Van Helmont. He closed his literary performances with
this noble fabric of logic and learning, not the less striking, and
scarcely less useful, because it is chequered by so